Google is out to break into new technology territories, its current target being the operating system market. It has officially released an open source code for the new Chrome OS. This operating system is set to appear in third-party vendors’ netbooks with such devices available in the market by next year and possible on managed hosting servers.With Chrome, the search engine giant takes on a different approach compared to the big-players in the OS industry such as Windows, Mac and even Linux. It shows what could happen if, say for instance, Ubuntu was combined with Firefox. You get a browser that does not use an operating system to run – a browser that is an operating system. All applications are Web apps and all the data you save through them are stored in a cloud. Very little is saved on the hard drive.The advantage of this new OS, according to Google’s spokespeople, is that the boot-up times are extremely faster. Security is also easily manageable because if you’re not hosting the data on your local hard drive, you’re also preventing your computer from hosting malware. And in case your Chrome netbook gets in the wrong hands, your password and log in information are all safe – you can even reclaim the data and the settings you have saved by signing on through another Chrome netbook that will replace the one you’ve lost. The setback is that Chrome’s abilities are limited when you don’t have Web access. Then, there’s also the issue with privacy as your data is probably stored on somebody else’s servers. But Google hasn’t been marketing Chrome as a replacement for your old OS. If anything, the first batch of netbooks that are going to be available next year will be offered as companion devices.