Google Chrome OS Netbook Assault Imminent

Image via WikipediaApple had its iPhone moment. Google had its Android moment. Apple had its iPad moment. There will be a ton of Android tablets, but Google's equivalent of the iPad moment, I believe, we are about to see: the arrival of the Chrome OS netbooks. The netbooks will aim at the tablet - where's the keyboard? - and they will take aim at Windows: why is the machine taking so long to startup?

PCR: Google preps Chrome OS netbook assault: a number of Chrome OS devices to arrive from Samsung, Acer, Asus, Toshiba and HP..... people looked to the web for most of their entertainment, communication and productivity tasks..... the lightweight, low power and low cost netbook ...... a spring clean in order to improve OS start times....."Android is very focused on the best mobile experience there is, Chrome is very focused on the best web experience there is." ..... the minimalist school of design ..... Chrome OS powered netbooks will be available for under $400. ..... 10-inch

There is talk this last decade belonged to Google and Apple, this next belongs to Facebook. I think this next belongs to Facebook and Google. To have both Android and the Chrome OS is pretty phenomenal. Google is running strong still. Windows, on the other hand.

I want the Chrome OS netbook to be super light, super cheap, and I want the screen to be big enough. This has to feel like a mobile device, something you feel okay carrying around. And there should be a small smartphone like screen that you see even when you have it shut. You should be able to place calls. Or a tablet-netbook two in one. Or a three in one: smartphone, tablet, netbook. I want my Chrome OS close, I want my Android closer.

Chrome OS Site: Chrome OS To Arrive In October: actual device sales will be much latter on in the year, most probably just before the Christmas holidays.

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Facebook Needs To Revamp Email Next

Image by Ian Muttoo via Flickr

Mark Zuckerberg: The Facebook Blog: Giving You More Control

Facebook's revamping the Groups feature is pretty fundamental. This has been a demand a long time. People have been saying that Facebook thinks people have only one social graph, the truth is people have many social graphs. I have not used the feature yet, just read about it, but looks like Facebook now lets you have your many social graphs.

And the download feature is Facebook nuking Diaspora. This is a preemptive strike and a pretty big one too. On the other hand now suddenly there is room for some smart aleck startup to do something pretty phenomenal. This is Diaspora's death sentence or its godsend. Is the glass empty or full? I don't know. Let Diaspora decide.

What got my attention though is what is missing. Facebook has not yet revamped its email program. It needs to. 2010 is the year of The Dreaded Inbox. The original app of the computing experience has become a monster. And I think Facebook is uniquely positioned to tackle this huge problem.

How about giving every Facebook user a Facebook email address? So I might get paramendra@facebookmail.com. And give each user three inboxes. Inbox 1 is for people who are in my social graph. Inbox 2 is for people who are not necessarily in my social graph, but they are on Facebook and they are sending the email while they are logged into Facebook. Inbox 3 is for people who are neither here nor there, as in they are maybe sending you email from their Gmail account, maybe.

That simple, doable step would solve a lot of inbox problems for a lot of people.

Email has to be a scalable experience. Right now it has stopped being an experience for most people. And so people go hide. They hide on Twitter, and Quora, and, yes, Facebook.

Inbox 2 perhaps should have bells and whistles. You can email someone not in your social graph, but when you do, you are giving them permission to take a look at your full profile for perhaps one day of opening the email.

This is akin to the priority inbox concept. All emails are not the same. All human beings are equal, but that does not apply to emails.

I think the best part of the new Groups feature for Facebook might be that people now have the option to create robust Facebook work groups, and Facebook can now go Facebook Enterprise. Do you smell money?

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