TechJunction

It was a busy week in the worlds of browsers and operating systems, as Google proved–with its unveiling of the browser-based Chrome OS–that the two are colliding.
Imagine a computer experience that’s much like TV: flip a switch and it’s on. That was the vision conveyed by Google Vice President of Product Marketing Sundar Pichai Thursday [...]

Google’s Chrome OS isn’t the first operating system to challenge Microsoft Windows’ commanding lead. But it’s got an advantage that other rivals such as Linux lacked: the Web.
Any new operating system must attract the developers who produce the applications to make it useful. The trouble Windows challengers have had is matching the wide spectrum of [...]

 
That Google operating system rumor is coming true–and it’s based on Google’s browser, Chrome.
The company announced Google Chrome OS on its blog Tuesday night, saying lower-end PCs called Netbooks from unnamed manufacturers will include it in the second half of 2010. Linux will run under the covers of the open-source project, but the applications will run on [...]

Ars has learned from two separate sources, one inside the company and one outside of it, that Google is preparing to deliver a Chrome-focused operating system that targets netbooks.
 
Two separate sources—one inside the company and one outside it—have confirmed to Ars tonight that Google plans to launch an operating system built in some fashion around [...]

Two major features have been dropped from the APIs for version 1.0 of Google’s Android mobile phone platform: Bluetooth and GTalkService (Google Talk).

Is the mighty Google slipping or are delays to a potentially world-beating smartphone platform nothing to worry about?

Google has long said that its best hope for future growth comes from mobile devices. Today, Google moved to bring that future a bit closer.
The Internet search giant joined an industry consortium that plans to build a next-generation wireless data network. Google is investing $500 million in the project, which is led by Sprint and [...]

Microsoft says merging with Yahoo will allow it to offer a competitive alternative to Google in the market for online services.
Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for around $44.6 billion in cash and shares, to better compete with Google in the market for online services.
CEO Steve Ballmer made the offer in a letter to [...]

Google on Wednesday announced the release of a new interface to enable iPhone users to navigate Google’s various services through a unified interface.
When iPhone users visit the Google site using the Safari browser on their iPhone, they’ll find a navigation bar that lets them switch between Google Search, Gmail, Calendar, Reader and other services.
Google says [...]

Google will come out in mid-2008 with a mobile phone platform that incorporates a variety of Google online services and lets outside developers create applications, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The goal is to make Google applications and services as easily accessible on mobile phones as PCs so that the company can extend its advertising [...]

A new report shows Baidu.com increased its share of the search market in China’s top cities, while rival Google lost ground despite continued heavy investments in its Chinese operations.

Baidu has a 69.5 percent share of the search market in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, up 7.6 percentage points since last [...]