Google I/O, the company’s annual developer conference starts this week, and all eyes will be upon Google, just as they have been on Facebook since its developer conference.

Watch  for exclusive, live video interviews from Google I/O this week at live.webpronews.com.

While reports of an upcoming tablet from Verizon to run software from Google, which would presumably compete with Apple’s iPad have captured much of the industry’s attention, it has not been revealed whether the device will run Android or Chrome OS, but Android seems the more likely fit. However, Chrome OS systems are on the way, and we may see some as early as within the next couple weeks.

If computing is going to the cloud, does that include printing? It does in Google’s plan. The company has introduced preliminary designs for a project called Google Cloud Print, a service that would allow any desktop, web, or mobile app on any device to print to any printer that the user sets up.

Google and Apple have clashed a number of times in recent months, and a Taiwanese hardware manufacturer is poised to ensure that the two companies butt heads yet again.  Asus has indicated that it will challenge the iPad with a tablet PC powered by either Android or Chrome OS.

Given the way in which the iPad’s dominated this week’s tech news, rumors about all other sorts of touch-sensitive technology were bound to spread.  Still, there may be something to the excitement about Chrome OS responding to touch, as a Google employee sort of set off the hubbub.

Everybody has been waiting to see a glimpse of Google’s upcoming Chrome OS – that is Google’s new operating system. Those who attended an event at the company’s headquarters today had a chance to view a demo in person, and many more details than previously available are now out on the OS.

Google has now opened up the code for Chrome OS, so developers can get in there and see what it’s really all about. For all of the non-developer types, Google has provided the following short video, which sums up what Chrome OS is as a concept.

Update: According to TechCrunch, Google will be holding a special Chrome OS event on Thursday morning, where they will show off demos and give an overview of the product, now said to be launching next year.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that Google announced that it would be releasing a new operating system called Google Chrome OS this week. One mysterious blog entry popped up soon after, claiming to have snagged some screenshots of the OS as Google demoed the product to Acer.

Here’s an excerpt from that post:

At the moment, Microsoft has a market cap of $205.7 billion, and the corporation has its Windows operating system to thank for much of that money.  It may be noteworthy, then, that CEO Steve Ballmer claims to be rather baffled by the concept of Google Chrome OS.

Yesterday, we reported that nine companies had partnered with Google to help develop Google Chrome OS.  This article may be a little short on names by comparison, but it seems important to note that Intel, the chipmaker with a market cap of about $90 billion, is also on the team. 

The initial announcement about Google Chrome OS was, while exciting, extremely lacking in details.  Now, Google’s decided to share a bit more info, and the facts paint an interesting picture about the state of the operating system’s development. 

Google has announced that it is working on an operating system based on Google Chrome (their browser). The company says the project is an attempt to "re-think what operating systems should be."

The OS-in-progress is simply called Google Chrome OS,  it is open source, and it will initially be aimed at netbooks. The announcement came on the same day that Google dropped the "beta" tag from Google Apps.