The Google Netbook: An Enabler

A recent article in the NY Times went over how Google is planning on introducing a Google Netbook in the coming months. The netbook is expected to run on the Chrome OS, which as the article discussed, is essentially the same thing as the Chrome browser. Basically, all of our information normally stored on each individual computer will be stored on Google's servers, accessed via the cloud. Google's strategy is to use these netbooks as another portal towards their services, allowing them to make money off of their primary means: advertising. The Chrome OS-based netbook will run only Google web-based applications instead of its competitor's apps (instead of iTunes, a Google based music software, instead of MS Office, a Google-based office replica, etc.).

The article notes one major issue with introducing a netbook is that the market has already changed in the past year from netbooks to tablets. However, I see a few other issues with the idea of the Google Netbook. If all of our information will be stored on Google's servers, privacy issues will certainly come to the forefront (as if they weren't already). Google will have direct access to a huge amount of critical information. I would imagine companies holding sensitive information on their databases would be a bit skeptical in putting such information on the cloud. Another issue is the attempt Google would be making at locking in users to their Web-based applications. Google has been about opening up the web, allowing their open-source model of application development to push their applications above many of their competitors. However, locking out software on their Google Netbooks will most likely drive away customers who like the flexibility of using different software/applications. It could also reduce the value of Google's applications, as developers for the Chrome OS will have less competition to deal with and thus less motivation to improve since the OS disallows consumers to use some of Google's major competitor's applications.