Google has taken the first official jab at Microsoft by announcing the Google Chrome Operating System today. It will be customized for netbooks first, hence our interest, then the rest of the computing world.

What’s the future like for this Google Chrome Netbook Operating System? It will be an interesting battle to watch. Google is playing two powerful cards in the software wars: open and simple.

It’s offering the ultimate alternative to Microsoft OS that’s vulnerable to viruses and other security threats, closed and complex and not really optimized for netbooks, the fatest growing computer segment.

Google said that Google Chrome Operating System will be ready in mid-2010. That should get Microsoft enough time to counter this big threat by stealing the show as they announce a simpler, faster and more secure operating system for netbooks and computers at large.

The ultimate winner as usual will be the computer user. When a monopoly is threatened is stops resting on its laurels and actually bends backwards for the consumer. I can’t tell how this battle with turn out. These two giants have enough resources to go at each other (most start-ups who try to compete with Microsoft fail mostly because of lack of resources) and they have to diametrically opposed concepts just as democrats are to republicans and vice versa in the US political arena.

Needless to say that Netbook Era will closely monitor this battle and update you on all the juicy bits and details.

I personally think that Google would have been better off getting into the laptop and netbook markets instead of the smartphone one. But I don’t blame them. Before less than a year ago, no one ever thought that the netbook era would arrive in full force. So everyone is trying to figure out how the netbook will play out and is jumping into the boat because it’s better to do so now even if it’s an unknown territory than to jump in later when everyone has a market strong hold.