No one can deny the effect that Google has had over how we use computers in the last decade. In the beginning it started with a simpler home page, one less burdened by the clutter that other search engine’s provided. From search it moved to dominate the web advertising with it’s Adsense program that provides relevant marketing to web pages and the ever-changing content of the web. They sought to change the face of e-mail first by giving you a simpler way to organize and manage your in-box. They also looked to offer free online tools to write and manage documents that were more traditionally handled by expensive word processors. More recently they have sought to change the face of e-mail and general communication again, with their newest beta product Wave.

These are only a small number of the growing projects that Google has in its labs. Lesser known to some has been Google’s dabbling in building its own operating systems and browser. It started with mobile phone platform known as Android that has taken the developer and general geek communities by storm, promising a truly open platform in the ever-growing mobile universe. This was a complete affront to the blossoming Apple iPhone movement, which while exploding, is somewhat plagued by sense that big brother is always watching and stifling innovation. The promise from Google was that it wanted to facilitate innovation by providing a truly open alternative for the traditionally very closed mobile market.

Soon after they released their own browser, Chrome. By their own admission it was intended as a proof of concept for how to build a better browser, one they planned to keep open-source (like many of its competitors) and that would show Google’s intent to smooth out some of the ripples in the normally choppy waters of the web. It is in their best interest after all that every one be using a browser that has good support for current standards and that is fast and secure enough for people to feel safe in moving their lives online; into Google’s world. That is their business model after all. They are cloud computing for the masses.

Recently Google released a second operating system, one that has had many in a buzz, wondering what they were up to. Until very recently, all we really knew was that they were working on a new OS called Chromium and that it would be what could be considered a web-centric platform. What this meant to most of us was that Google was once again throwing away everything and starting from scratch, claiming they knew better. I’ll admit, I’ve been very wary about this new entry, looking at it from my own personal computing perspective and asking why?

So, what is Chromium then?

Let us start by answer the inverse and stating what it is not. Chromium is not a traditional desktop operating system. It is not meant as a platform for which you are to install software like games and productivity suites. It does not have a start menu or control panel. Its purpose is quite simply to put the things you traditionally do on your home computer out into the web. In short, Chromium will not replace your desktop anytime soon. That isn’t what it’s for.

In the last week Google released the beta for Chromium and while I have downloaded it and loaded it up into a virtual computer, I must say, I was underwhelmed. Chromium is quite simply a fancier version of its Chrome browser just replacing your whole desktop experience. You run programs from the browser, instead of a start menu, you have a glorified bookmark bar of your most often used sites. Looking at it and then looking at my own triple screen computer setup, makes me cringe. How am I supposed to do everything I do in just a browser window?

Simply put, I’m not.

Chromium is not meant for my desktop set-up. It isn’t meant as a development platform or for gaming computers or for people needing the full office productivity suite. What it is meant for is a fast and secure solution for a very new, but emergent market: the netbook. Netbooks and other small, low power devices are taking over for every one from the traditional alpha-geeks to home users. Why? Because they are small focused devices that allow us to quickly get on the Internet. In fact, their biggest hindrance thus far has been that device manufacturers have tried to shoe-horn traditional desktop operating system on these devices. While they work, they are far from ideal solutions.

This is where Google is attacking and I think they will win a spot in this space very quickly. Because when you use one of these devices, you do so to surf the web, check your e-mail, look up contacts, read some news or any other number of online activities. If you need to work on a paper for school and you have one of these, well that’s what Google Docs is for. On the little atom processors these devices run on, I can promise that it will run faster than any of the desktop solutions. With their 9-10″ screens, they are far from ideal multi-tasking computers anyway, so the simplicity can be a plus. As these systems are not meant to be your primary computers, the idea of local storage becomes unappealing, because then you have to worry about syncing devices later on.

If it is all out in the cloud, then your data follows you. In fact, if you drop your netbook or it gets stolen, because there is minimal data on it (as long as you didn’t write your username and password on the thing), it is still safe. You can buy a replacement, log in and voilà, you have your data back. This is the future of computing that Google is trying to help enable.

Is it secret is it safe?

According to Google, Chromium has been built from the ground up with security in mind. When it comes to malware like viruses, keyloggers and spyware, Chromium should be relatively safe based on the fact that you are not meant to install software on it. Traditionally the number one way to get a virus is for a user to install it themselves. Generally unknowingly of course. However with a system that is kept up to date and by using a secure browser, the likelihood of getting malware installed on your computer accidentally is infinitesimal.

Not to say that holes will not be found or that it will be 100% unhackable. Those are both impossibilities. However, by removing a lot of the moving parts that allow for infestation and keeping it simple, Google has much less to worry about security-wise. Really, the biggest threat for users will likely be phishing scams which are more about social engineering than infecting computers.

While your data not being on your computer also means that it remains more secure against an exploit that is found, there are plenty of people who look at keeping your data online as having other security implications. Such as your data is one password away from being stolen. That is a completely separate discussion though.

What’s left for the desktop?

For now I don’t think Microsoft has much to worry about. Windows is not Chromium’s target as a replacement. At least not in the desktop space where Microsoft makes their money. As I am excited to see where Android will take the mobile market, I am equally excited for Chromium. It promises to help focus how we interact with the web and to make these smaller computers just a bit simpler. In fact, just like in the beginning, when all the “experts” derided then for their barren homepage, with just a search box, Google is once again going back to basics and asking: what is it exactly that you are doing with your computer that needs it to be so complicated?

Chromium is not meant to be a 100% solution. It is meant to take what people spend 80% of their time doing on a computer and do it better. I think in that it very well may end up being a success. Unlike its competitors though, Google doesn’t win by getting you to use Chromium (it is free as in beer after all). They win by switching the paradigm away from desktop-centric computing to cloud-based computing, something any true competitor to Chromium will do for them as well.