Google is showcasing how its Chrome OS will change the user experience when it launches before next year's holiday season. The new operating system will initially appear on netbook-style devices that will feature bigger keyboards than today's netbooks offer, the company said.
First and foremost, the Chrome OS design team is obsessed about speed, noted Group Product Manager Caesar Sengupta and Engineering Director Matt Papakipos.
"We are taking out every unnecessary process, optimizing many operations, and running everything possible in parallel," Sengupta and Papakipos said. "This means you can go from turning on the computer to surfing the web in a few seconds."
Improving the User Experience
Though Chrome OS still has a long way to go before all its specs are finalized, Google is already showing off some of the features it has in mind. To minimize the amount of screen space devoted to the Chrome OS, the system's user-interface window is expected to combine apps and standard web pages into a tab strip at the top of the screen.
Called the apps menu, the primary OS access point will provide ready access to frequently used web apps and tools featuring desktop functionality. Moreover, individual apps will open in tabs along the strip.
"Within these application tabs, most things behave the same way as they do in Chrome today," said Google spokesperson Glen Murphy.
Some secondary apps will open in small overlays that Google calls panels. Designed to handle specific functions, such as chat and music players, the panels will float on top of other open applications. Or if the user prefers, they can be docked to a bar at the bottom of the screen or placed in a sidebar. Additionally, Google may offer a split-screen mode that will enable users to view two different content selections side by side.
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