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Looking rather like the vintage Simon Says computer game, we may be seeing a lot more of the Google Chrome logo in months come

AUTOMATE the mundane. It’s the abiding cri de couer of software developers and IT systems and service providers. Indeed, the thinkers in those industries have reached the point where any human interaction with an automated system that leads to production rather than decision-making is considered a failure of process.

That might seem extreme for the rest of us, raised on future shock fare like Terminator, Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey, where an investment of such duty in machines in abrogation of our own responsibilities leads to ruin. But even a glance over the shoulder, back to a time when everything was completed by human hand, quickly shows how far we’ve travelled.

As the pace of development on Web 2.0 slows, becoming less incremental, and just a few paces on from the lightning strike platform that is Facebook, attention is beginning to focus on 3.0, and what its introduction will mean to the ways we live. Somewhat inevitably, speculation has focused on the social side of social media, envisaging models of service that take the support role of iPhone apps to the next level, not only able to answer inconvenient questions about train times, films on at the cinema and the nearest Mongolian restaurant, but able to learn our habits and prioritise information accordingly. A development certainly, but worthy of advancing by one whole digit? Surely such progress in only collaborating and indulging in leisure time makes it more a 2.5?

It seems likely that the mechanisms that allow for the delivery of information – how we receive and pass it on, as we have learned from 2.0 – that will become more important than the applications that allow us to do it. What lies behind, the boring stuff, the science bit. And it should have repercussions beyond our social lives.

The battle is likely to be joined in earnest next year, when Google rolls out an online operating system as part of its already-in-existence Chrome web browser application. Imaginatively titled Google Chrome OS, it takes the toe-to-toe battle with Microsoft to a new level, what MG Siegler at TechCrunch described as “Google dropping the mother of bombs on its chief rival”. To be fair, most of the antagonism (if you want to frame this as anything other than a business battle, it might be fairer to describe it as development) has come from Google. It has become the only company in the world that has grabbed market share from Bill Gates’ pre-eminent software market in search (although it would be also fairer to say that Microsoft has been the challenger here), documents, online communication such as email and mobile services. Microsoft has responded with an aggressive push into the search market, through acquisition, buying rights and development of Bing, it’s own search engine.

But Siegler isn’t overstating the case. He highlights Google’s argument that “the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web”. This much is true. Most netbooks, whose sales have gone through the roof in the past 12 months, operate on Windows XP, a system introduced some eight years ago. Google Chrome OS, by contrast, is “for people who live on the web”. That pretty much means all of us. Outside of the workplace, it is primarily what we use our PCs for.

There are all kinds of individual advantages to a remote operating system, which is a part of cloud computing. It means that if a PC is stolen or damaged or breaks down (as they often do), all of your information is stored on a server farm in somewhere like Iceland, the ultimate off-site back-up. And, provided Google keeps its promise about virus and online fraud protection, it could mean an end to placing personal information in the hands of those whom you’d rather didn’t see it. It also means a new lease of life for old machines, as Chrome OS will require far less capacity – although, presumably, a degree of technical competence will be required for the switchover.

And, of course, any old machine will need to be compatible with latest generation connectivity, and this remains the Achilles heel of cloud computing. If you can’t access online, the whole experiment falls down. Fine if the internet is piped to your house, but not so good for mobile broadband dependents, such as netbooks – particularly as 3G spectrum capability is being reached and the Government has yet to resolve the 2G ownership wrangles among mobile operators that would pave the way to Long Term Evolution and the accessing of the now-available analogue signal.

It is possible that Google felt Facebook snapping at its heels. Already used widely as a portal, the introduction of gateway services, such as access to bank accounts, there could be real trouble if a search engine was built into the platform. But far more interesting than Google’s motives are the possibilities Cloud OS brings for businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises of which there is a predominance here in Wales.

Operating a company’s IT systems remotely – and for free, as Chrome OS will be open source – will significantly bring down operating costs. Of course, Google will have to provide software comparable to those already in use in business. It would, for example, require something that meets the tool-rich capabilities of Microsoft Office or industry standards such as Sage. But, for an SME, it is unlikely that huge processing systems – of the kind provided by Oracle, for example – would be needed.

One of the great strengths of fully-realised cloud computing is the remote collaboration it realises. Two consultants, sat in Port Talbot and Pittsburgh, can use an application like EtherPad to complete a report together without leaving their offices – if, indeed, they have premises in the first place. It can deliver agility and adaptability – two key advantages for SMEs. It could further transform industries like the news media, where the employment of netbooks could more fully realise real-time reporting, particularly if networks are robust enough to support HD streaming.

There are further issues to resolve. As perhaps important as connectivity issues is the relationship that companies using cloud OS will develop with server hosts, if they go with charging competitor to Google. As this site discovered to its cost recently, contracts must be clearly defined and under no conditions – not even a dispute over payment – should the host be able to claim even temporary ownership of a business’ IP and documentation. Any host business that considers its reputation important (and there are plenty out there that don’t), will agree to minimum standards of service, supported with a compensation structure if those standards are not met, and agreed fee structures that in no way violate the service standard.

Google’s entrance into the operating system market will once again raise the spectre of this company’s reach across the world. At some point, this will presumably become an issue for legislation, but perhaps more immediately any company that is considering the option of cloud OS (and there others apart from Chrome OS, including online Microsoft services in Azure, as well as linux for the more technically confident), the possibility of future charging should be taken into account.

As for a Google monopoly, despite its huge reach, the Californian company is not above buying in outside expertise, either through contract or through acquisition (such as Chrome OS mobile counterpart, Android, later spun off to the Open Handset Alliance). But Apple’s model of buying in small innovative applications for its iPhone has many admirers. Meanwhile, Apple itself is rumoured to be readying to enter the netbook market with a touchscreen model that will no doubt prove popular if it is true. This may be a good move, because cloud computing suits Spotify far better than iTunes (itself rumoured to be set for a move to the cloud).

Perhaps this understates the case for Web 3.0. It seems reasonable to assume that it will continue to develop away from our expectations, and the semantics element of its advancement will surprise and throw up new possibilities. In the meantime, we only have to wait a few months to see cloud computing finally filling the skies.