Yep, this one will probably go on some historical timeline in a tech museum someday. Less than a year after taking on Microsoft in the Internet browser market, Google tonight announced that it will be going head-to-head with the Redmond company in a market with a much bigger impact on its bottom line: the PC operating system business.

It will be called the Google Chrome OS, sharing a brand name with the company’s browser. "It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be," write Google executives in a blog post.

"Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

"Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work."

Maybe now Microsoft executives will finally be able to abandon the notion that IBM is their biggest competitor. The move puts Google in direct competion with Windows on PCs, a product responsible for more than half Microsoft’s $22 billion in fiscal 2008 operating profits.

The timing is also fascinating. Microsoft is widely expected to announced next week that Windows 7 is officially done, or "released to manufacturing," to use the lingo. If Microsoft were writing the script, that moment would mark the beginning of a new era in which Windows 7 would return its flagship product in triumph to the top of the tech world — or at least not be the embarassement its predecessor was.

Now comes Google, promising a new operating system built for the Internet age, with an architecture consisting simply of "Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel."

The official Google blog post makes no explicit mention of a possible business model, but if Chrome OS were to follow the pattern, it would be offered free, with elements that indirectly support or directly boost the company’s advertising-based business.

Computer users "don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates," says the official post, signed by Sundar Pichai, Google vice president of product management; and Linus Upson, Google engineering director. "And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet."

Google acknowledged in the post that there will be areas of overlap between Chrome OS and its Android operating system, which was originally targeted to mobile phones but has since been expanded to run on netbooks. In those cases, the company said, "choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google."

Microsoft hasn’t yet issued an official comment on the news.

The New York Times and Ars Technica broke the story prior to the blog post. The Times reports that Google had planned to announce the news Wednesday before receiving inquiries from the paper.

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and Managing information overload  

Here’s something that the TechFlash team could use — a more effective way to manage email, RSS, Twitter and blogs. Marina Martin — owner of the consulting shop The Type-A Way — is presenting tonight at the Seattle offices of Startpad on how to manage information overload. You can tune in on Ustream. 

Martin says she tries to manage her email inbox to zero messages.  Ugh, she wouldn’t like mine right now, which has 230 messages.

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and Is Amazon giving mobile app developers the cold shoulder?  

Is Amazon.com cutting off mobile applications that want to make use of its data? Delicious Monster, maker of media cataloging software for Macs, has yanked its iPhone app after encountering pushback from Amazon.com, according to a series of tweets by Delicious CEO Wil Shipley today. Shipley wrote that Amazon "forced me to remove" the Delicious Library 2 iPhone app, citing restrictions on use of its APIs with mobile apps.

"HELP! How do I remove an app from Sale on the App Store? I need to do this RIGHT NOW," Shipley tweeted. An hour later, he posted an update: "The DL2 iPhone app was perfectly safe, but Amazon has forced me to remove it due to their new contract." 

Shipley linked to Amazon’s API License Agreement, noting section 4e, which reads, "You will not, without our express prior written approval requested via this link, use any Product Advertising Content on or in connection with any site or application designed or intended for use with a mobile phone or other handheld device."

Shipley tweeted that, "I did apply for an approval, they said, ‘No exceptions are being made right now.’"

I’ve asked Amazon for comment, and will update this post if I hear anything.

[Via TechCrunch and PC World]

Follow my updates on Twitter.

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Plenty of Microsoft vouchers left as deadline for free training nears  

Back in April, as part of its Elevate America initiative, Microsoft gave out 30,000 vouchers to agencies in its home state for distribution to people seeking free training and certification in the company’s programs. The idea is to help people position themselves for better jobs at a time of rising unemployment. Of course, Microsoft also benefits by encouraging people to use its software.

Thousands of people have taken the company up on the offer. But the Employment Security Department, which received 25,000 of the vouchers to distribute through WorkSource locations throughout the state, says more than 17,000 were still available as of last week.

Time is slipping away. The deadline is July 31 to activate vouchers. People will have 12 months after that to use vouchers for free online training courses. They’ll have until the end of August to use a different type of voucher offering certification in Microsoft programs.

Microsoft is offering three kinds of vouchers: training for business users on various Windows XP, Windows Vista and Office programs; advanced training for IT pros and developers; and certification exams for Office 2003 and Office 2007.

One complication is that the Employment Security Department is distributing the vouchers in person at WorkSource offices around the state. The Workforce Development Council, which received the remaining 5,000 vouchers in the state, has been offering electronic distribution as another option.

That appears to have proven more successful. For example, out of the roughly 1,000 vouchers available through the Workforce Development Council in Seattle and King County, many of them are gone, said Workforce Development Council spokeswoman Margaret Graham.

The Redmond company has said it hopes to provide training to up to 2 million people over three years through the Elevate America program. See this page for details on getting one of the remaining vouchers in Washington state.

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