All systems go as Google bites back

ERIC Schmidt, Google's chief executive, was last week said to be "interested" in the tie-up between Microsoft and Yahoo but the head of the search engine is unlikely to be worried just yet. After all, search engines are not the only front on which Microsoft is battling Google, as the up-start search engine seems determined to take on the software giant in its own territory.

Last month, Google unveiled plans for its own operating system, the basic core program on top of which other computer software functions. Since the days of MS-DOS, Microsoft has dominated the operating system market, with its Windows titles becoming the industry standard.

After last year launching Chrome – a website browser to rival Microsoft's internet explorer – Google plans to build on the platform and create a Chrome operating system (OS).

While Microsoft Windows was originally constructed in an age before the internet was in wide use, Google is writing the coding for its Chrome OS to be "lightweight" and suit "people who live on the web".

Chrome OS will be built on top of Linux, an operating system popular with computer programmers and technology-literate amateurs who can customise the software to their own needs.

So-called open source software will be at the heart of the new operating system, which its makers say will initially be available on netbooks, the new generation of miniature laptops that allow users to surf the internet and check e-mails but without the processing power needed for more complex functions. Eventually Google wants its Chrome OS to feature as a rival for Windows on full-sized laptops and even desktop computers, with the netbook version expected to hit the streets in the second half of next year.

Google already makes Android, an operating system designed to run on a range of devices from mobile phones through to set-top digital boxes and netbooks. T-Mobile, the German-owned mobile phone network, launched the G1, the first phone to be powered by Android, last September and the software has gone on to be seen as an alternative to Microsoft's own mobile operating system.

"Search has proved itself to be such a fundamental area that Microsoft will be kicking itself for letting Google run away in that field," says Tino Nombro. He thinks Google's move into software highlights changes in the way people access the internet, with more users wanting to surf while on the move.

"The two key factors are access speed and storage capacity," says Nombro. "When those are sorted you could start doing things on iPhones, Blackberrys and the like and move away from traditional desktop machines, where Microsoft has been the real dominant force.

"That's a bigger battlefield for these companies to think about."

While it is unlikely that "Bing" will enter the dictionary in the same fashion that Google has, perhaps lexicographers should be updating their definitions for "chrome" instead.