Google bombarded thousands of attendees at its I/O 2013 Keynote with enough information to force that hi-res photo of Vic Gundotra's forehead into their dreams tonight. Here are the eight best moments:

Google Variant Of The Samsung Galaxy S4

One of the briefer announcements at I/O was the introduction of a variant of the Samsung Galaxy S4 configured with the look and UI feel of a 4.2 Jelly Bean Nexus phone. In a sense, it strips all the Samsung bloatware from the phone to deliver a much purer Google/Android experence. The phone will hit the Play store June 26, with a no-contract price of $649. 

Google's Music Streaming Service

The news was out yesterday, so it wasn't a huge surprise when Google's Chris Yerga announced the company's plans to enter the music streaming service battleground with Google Play All Access. Despite the few missing details, ReadWrite's John Paul Titlow writes, "It's a crowded space with challenging economics, but if anybody is well-positioned to win this game, it's Google."

(See also: Google Just Launched A Grenade At Spotify — And It Just Might Work)

Free Chromebook Pixels

Google didn't disappoint with its Oprah moment. While a free Google Glass device was obviously the longshot giveaway in the back of everyone's mind, the company opted instead for a free Chromebook Pixel laptop for every attendee. Not bad. 

Linking Device Displays Into A Multiplayer Game

While the first attempt at demoing a live multiplayer game at the keynote failed, Google managed to get it right the second time in a more impressive setting. On a stripped down racing game, four players competed all using different devices that synced together to form the race track. 

Google Realizes Its Star Trek Dreams

Senior VP Amit Singhal opened by recalling childhood hopes of bringing his Star Trek-influenced dreams to life, and segued to how Google is bringing that to pass with devices that you can talk to. The goal is to make search a natural language conversation, and Google's examples were pretty convincing — both a Chromebook and Nexus were able to accept spoken commands and turn them into personalized search results without a single hiccup. 

(See also: Google Search Learns To Listen & Understand Context)

Google Delivers Impressive Photo-Editing Tools

After debuting a Google+ design overhaul, SVP of engineering and social Vic Gundotra also took keynote attendees through a demonstration of Google's new capabilities in photo editing. Some especially notable features include the ability to auto-edit an entire batch of photos to the best moments and to enhance photos automatically. 

Google Maps Escapes The Stratosphere

While the overhaul of Google Maps certainly wasn't the most exciting presentations of the keynote, the presentation ended with stunning scenes of the Earth from space — both daylit and at night. That view and others that used to be limited to the Google Earth service are now baked right into your browser as part of the new Maps refresh. Desktop users will see it first, with mobile users to follow soon after. 

Larry Page Ends His Speech With A Q&A Session

Larry Page's speech was notable both for its oddly vulnerable quality and for the hoarseness of Page's voice, which hovered slightly above a whisper — a consequence of what Page described yesterday as an unexplained case of vocal chord paralysis.

The big surprise here came when when Page turned the finale into a Q&A session. The highlight: Google's CEO telling Robert Scoble, who was first in line to ask a question, that he didn't appreciate his now-infamous Google Glass shower pic. 

Jon Hamm Of Mad Men Makes An Appearence (Not Really...)

Last but definitely not least is that guy who looked eerily like Jon Hamm (of Mad Men, you philistines) waiting in line to ask Larry Page a question... while wearing the greatest hat ever. Turns out it wasn't Jon Hamm (sigh), though from a distance (and over slightly grainy streaming video) the resemblance is truly uncanny.

Images by Nick Statt for ReadWrite

Welcome to ReadWrite's live coverage of the Google I/O keynote. Below you'll see not only a live stream of the event, but live blogging from our on-the-spot team including editor-in-chief Owen Thomas, mobile editor Dan Rowinski, contributing writer Mark Hachman and our fearless editorial assistant Nick Statt.

Our stories so far:

• In Google's Future, We Will All Be Developers
• Now Google Wants To Kill The Mobile Web (Good Riddance)
• Google Just Launched A Grenade At Spotify — And It Just Might Work
• Google Is Turning Search Into The Planet's Biggest Anticipatory System
• The Future Of Google Maps: Social, Personalized And Way Smarter
• What Google Didn't Announce At I/O
• Google Search Learns To Listen & Understand Context
• Google Is Making Life Easier For Android Developers

For the rest of the live blog coverage, see our real-time posts on the ReadWrite Google+ page.

If you like Google, mobile development and cloud platforms, this is going to be a good week for you.

Google will have lots of goodies this week for developers - and consumers - at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco. We might see some new hardware, a couple updates to Google’s major platforms (Maps, Android, Chrome, Google+ and Play) and most likely a surprise or two. But, really, the week belongs to the developers.

Historically, I/O has been an occasion for Google to get its developer community together and introduce them to the newest tools, tips on how to develop for Google apps and best practices. Until the last couple of years, I/O (which Google started in 2008) was all about developers and less about big product announcements. In 2011, Google announced Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as well as Chromebooks from Samsung and Acer. In 2012, the rage was Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Nexus 7 Android tablet and the spectacular unveiling of Google Glass. This year, we expect Google to once again focus heavily on its developer community - with fewer major product announcements.

From a hardware perspective, Google may or may not announce new devices during I/O, but don't expect an event like 2012, when Google-branded hardware stole the show. If Google does announce hardware, we expect that it will release (or at least update) some kind of Nexus tablet and/or smartphone (probably through LG), an update to its Chromebook line (likely through Samsung or Acer) and maybe something to do with Google TV.

Otherwise, Google I/O will be a developer’s paradise. Here’s what mobile, Web, cloud and social developers should be looking forward to:

Android Update: Probably More Jelly Beans

Chrome Android by Paul Wilcox

Google’s new head of Android, Sundar Pichai, told Wired not to expect any major product announcements at I/O. Considering that Pichai is head of Android and Chrome OS, we tend to think that he was specifically talking more about Google’s computing platforms and less about new hardware. 

That said, Google will update Android one way or another this week. The rumors surrounding I/O are that Google will issue an iterative update to Jelly Bean, Android version 4.3. If true, that means that Google is not yet coming out with Key Lime Pie, the next named version of Android. 

Regardless if we see a new version of Android or just a Jelly Bean update, there will be plenty of Android news at I/O. Some major themes:

• Gaming: Google will host a variety of game-related developer sessions at I/O. It will give developers best practices, design tips and ideas on taking their games to the next level. Google’s Ingress augmented/alternate reality game will be featured, with several Ingress battles taking place at Moscone West during the week. Most of the Android gaming sessions will take place on Day 1 (Wednesday, May 15) of I/O.
• Design & Performance: Google’s biggest objective with Android during the week will be working with developers to make their apps function seamlessly, look better and present dynamic user experiences. Most design and performance sessions will take place on Day 2. 
• Google Play: Google will be giving developers tips on how to best monetize their apps and get seen on its app store, Google Play, throughout the conference. Google Play sessions will be held on Day 2 & 3. 
• Maps: We expect a big update to Google Maps in both user interface, functionality and developer tools. Location is a key ingredient in how Google uses Android and there will be a variety of location- and Maps-related sessions on all three days of the event.

Chrome OS Tools, Apps & Features

Chromebook (by Mark Hachman)

Again, if we can believe Pichai, there will not be any major new announcements for Chrome. But there might be a new Chromebook announced at I/O and there will definitely be new feature updates. 

Chrome OS and the Chrome browser are important to Google because they are the company’s window to the Web. Chrome OS is also a key cog in Google's cloud strategy - the company wants to tie developers to the operating system and get them to run their apps in Google’s cloud platform. Many of the announcements and sessions at I/O related to Chrome will focus on functionality, cloud adoption and Google Apps (like Maps, Gmail, Drive etc.). On Monday, Google announced that Gmail, Google+ Photos and Drive will be merged to give users 15GB of storage. That type of integration will be prominent in how Google steers developers toward developing for Chrome at I/O.

• Drive: Google will be making a bid to get developers and users to tie their Chrome OS and browser storage to Drive, its personal cloud product. Google will push tying use of its Apps to Drive, such as in the Day 1 session titled, “Integrate Google Drive With Google App Scripts.”
• HTML: Chrome is for the Web and of the Web. Hence, HTML will always be a big part of development for apps on Chrome OS and the browser. I/O has several sessions on how to create mobile websites optimized through Chrome with HTML. It will also have sessions on Dart, Google’s programming language meant to accelerate function and performance in HTML Web apps. 

Google+ Enhanced Communication

The biggest improvements to Google’s social network likely concern communication. Google Babel is rumored to be the company’s integration of all of its messaging platforms into one product - likely to be rolled out through Google+. Google will spend a lot of time showing developers how to use Google+ as a “one true sign-in” platform, much like Facebook uses your profile to let you sign into a variety of websites. Google will also announce new features to Google+ designed to get developers to build more apps for the platform and increase engagement - from brands and consumers. 

Location, Location, Location

Google Maps will get some heavy play at this year's I/O. Maps will likely get a user experience overhaul - look for that to be a major component of Wednesday morning's keynote. Google wants Maps to be integrated everywhere, from Android to Chrome to every third-party app in between. On Day 1 and Day 2 it has a variety of sessions dedicated solely to Maps integration. That includes HTML5 and mobile Web visualization, indoor maps, API integration and discovery.

Only A Little Glass

Google Glass was the big announcement at I/O 2012. It will likely be a major theme at the keynote on Wednesday. The hype that surrounds Glass requires Google to mention it prominently. Yet, when it comes to developers, Glass will only be a sideshow to the major events around Chrome, Cloud and Android. 

Google is holding just four announced Glass development sessions, all on Day 2. Essentially, these sessions are Developing For Glass 101, and will include how to use the Google Mirror API.

On Monday, Microsoft premiered a television ad that portrays its Internet Explorer as the defender of user privacy among modern browsers.

The ad highlights IE's use of Do Not Track and its Tracking Protection Lists as effective tools in preserving online privacy, implying that Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari and Opera fail to keep up with Microsoft's principled stand on privacy.

Six months ago, Microsoft might have had a point. Now, however, many privacy advocates say that IE is the browser now falling behind in the privacy wars - because it doesn't block third-party tracking cookies by default.

(Many websites store a small snippet of code called a cookie on your hard drive when you visit the site. Typically, these cookies contain login information or other preferences. Since many websites serve up content or ads from third-parties, those third-party sources may also place tracking cookies in your browser - even though you never visited their site.)

Microsoft does allow users to manually exclude third-party cookies, as does Chrome. But Safari and soon Firefox will do this by default, stealing the wind from Microsoft's sails. 

And given Microsoft's history in terms of privacy and competition, it's easy to see the new ad - and Microsoft's whole privacy strategy - as a cynical ploy to acquire new IE users while denigrating its competitors. Even if that's true, privacy advocates said, Microsoft is at least doing something to address privacy issues. 

IE Trumpets Do Not Track, Tracking Protection

As a piece of advertising, Microsoft's spot does a fine job highlighting what users don't mind sharing, and what users would rather keep private. Microsoft focuses on two features in the 30-second ad: Do Not Track, which is turned on by default; and its Tracking Protection Lists. "Your privacy is our priority," is the tag line.

Do Not Track (DNT) merely asks a site not to track the user visiting it. At this point, Do Not Track is completely voluntary, and privacy advocates note that the vast majority of online advertising agencies decline to honor it. Microsoft's implementation of Do Not Track is little more than a symbolic gesture unless and until the online ad agencies agree to play ball. 

"Microsoft's DNT setting is fine, although it will likely be ignored until the W3C finishes the DNT standard, if ever," said David Jacobs, the Consumer Protection Counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), in an email.

Consumer watchdogs can still rattle their sabers, as Federal Trade Commission chairwoman Edith Ramirez did last week (PDF) in a speech to the American Advertising Federation. Ramirez warned that now was the time for industry stakeholders to nail down a Do Not Track agreement once and for all:

One can forgive stakeholders for thinking that it will always be so – for believing that 'not all the water in the rough rude sea can wash' the shine off this cyber-economy. But an online advertising system that breeds consumer discomfort is not a foundation for sustained growth. More likely, it is an invitation to Congress and other policymakers in the U.S. and abroad to intervene with legislation or regulation and for technical measures by browsers or others to limit tracking.

Tracking Protection lists are far more effective - they prevent websites from capturing information that the user doesn't wish to be shared. Right now, they're probably the most effective weapon that Microsoft has in protecting user privacy - but they rarely get used, according to Dan Auerbauch, a staff technologist with Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

Which Browser Leads In Privacy Protection?

"Firefox and Safari I would say are in first place right now in terms of protecting user privacy," because of third-party cookie blocking by default, Auerbach said.

Safari blocks third-party cookies by default; Mozilla has begun blocking third-party cookies by default in its alpha or Aurora build, with the expectation that the standard build will block them by summer. Chrome users must turn on the feature themselves by following a few simple instructions. Microsoft IE users can do this as well - but again, not by default.

"I would hope that Microsoft would follow soon, and I think that they're well-positioned to be the leader [in privacy]," Auerbach added. "We're encouraged by this campaign from Microsoft, and we think that they have the ability to do really good things here."

What's Microsoft Really Up To Here?

Is Microsoft genuinely interested in user privacy, or is it simply raising the specter of intrusive advertising to win new converts to IE? If Microsoft hadn't run its Scroogled campaign, which has highlighted all the ways that Google allegedly misuses user data to its own commercial ends, the answer might be yes. As it is, it's difficult to see Microsoft's efforts as truly altruistic, given its past history.

"Ultimately, I'm not sure how successful the campaign will be, but I think it's generally good when companies compete on privacy," said EPIC's Jacobs. "I don't know what Microsoft's underlying motivation is, but regardless of whether it's altruistic concern for user privacy or self-interested profit maximization, consumers can still benefit."

Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn't said when or whether it will block third-party cookies by default, and company representatives weren't able to comment. Microsoft does seem to be making strides in protecting user privacy, but its competitors are poised to pass it by, if they haven't already.

Image: Flickr/Scubadive67

Google announced today that it is creating a new rendering engine, dubbed Blink, for the popular but controversial browser engine WebKit that powers browsers such as Chrome and Apple's Safari. The move effectively "forks" WebKit, splitting up a common code base that Google and Apple, among others, had shared.

Blink will be an open source part of Google’s Chromium project, one intended to simplify the architecture of WebKit and provide transparency to Google’s work on the standard.

The move to create Blink has been in the works for several weeks, Google said. and originated among the engineers working on Google’s WebKit team. The problem was that the same WebKit code base supports different ports of WebKit, thus slowing everybody down. If Google were to have its own open source rendering engine, the pace of innovation could increase. Theoretically.

“It has gotten to a point now where we think everybody could move faster if we didn't have to share the same code base for these different architectures,” said Linus Upson, VP of engineering on Google’s Open Web Platform team. “There is some advantage to sharing the same code base and you get efficiency of scale from doing that but there is also the cost of supporting different browsers, different ports, different architectures.”

Addressing the WebKit Monoculture

Several weeks ago, browser maker Opera said that it was ditching its own custom-built rendering engine Presto and going to WebKit and Chromium. This caused a minor firestorm among Web developers, particularly those afraid that Web competing Web standards were going to be a thing of the past and the standard would become WebKit by default. The argument was that other rendering engines, like Mozilla’s Gecko for Firefox and Microsoft’s Trident for Internet Explorer, would get pushed out of the market, especially in mobile.

Also, if WebKit had a monopoly on the Web, upstart browser makers using different rendering engine standards could be stifled.

By creating Blink, Google wants to assure browser developers that it's addressing some of those concerns. Upson said:

One of the things is that a few weeks back when Opera said it was going to start using WebKit and Chromium, a number of people expressed concerns that people expressed that that the Web, particularly the mobile Web, was becoming a WebKit monoculture and in that kind of world standards wouldn't matter because it just one implementation, the implementation becomes the standard.

We think that by doing this, it will really help strengthen standards on the Internet and address those concerns that people raised a few weeks back.

Google is trying to be a good Web citizen with Blink. It has set stringent guidelines for new features and APIs that emphasize standards, transparency and interoperability. Competition is also a good thing, Google says, because multiple rendering engines, like multiple browsers, will spur innovation and improve the health of the open Web platform.

“Everything we are doing is going to be open source, so it won't change the way we do things on a day to day basis,” said Alex Komoroske, product manager on Google’s Open Web Platform team. “It is not going to change how we work with other browser vendors, standards bodies like the W3C and IETF an things like that. Much in the same way when we launched Chrome, we still have people today that contribute to Firefox and also we share a lot of open source code between Mozilla and Chrome.”

Rethinking WebKit

With Blink, Google has been able to eliminate some of the constraints created by the single code base in a multi-process architecture. This has enabled Upson and his team to rethink many of the old problems that Google’s engineers had not solved because of the previous limitations. 

“Now that we have come to grips with it, we have been brainstorming our wish list for the architecture that can speed ability and performance,” Komoroske said.

Blink is a step in the road for Google and WebKit. The code base will not change on Day One. But it offers freedom to make changes that were engineers previously would not have considered.

“Now, with that constraint changed, I am seeing tons of ideas percolate up. I am not sure which ones are going to be meaningful and have a huge impact and which ones will just be minor improvements but just watching the mindset change has been different,” Upson said.

The danger comes from fragmentation. Too many cooks in the WebKit kitchen could create forks that make it harder for developers to create applications that are compatible across browsers. That is why Upson and Komoroske are stressing that Blink and Chromium will be compatible and that Google will be very transparent with the changes it makes. 

Some developers are optimistic about Blink.

“I think competition is a healthy thing in this arena,” said Dave Wasmer, an engineer with Boston-based mobile cloud services provider Kinvey. “With Opera's move to WebKit, lots of people were concerned about stagnation if browsers coalesced around a single rendering engine. As always, it is a balancing act. Too much fragmentation and proprietary, non-standard features, and we've got Browser Wars: Round 2. But Android has certainly helped push Apple to make iOS even better, and competition in browsers can certainly help. Overall, like I said, I'm cautiously optimistic.”

Is Blink good for WebKit and the Web? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. 

Top image courtesy Shutterstock

When they were introduced, Chromebooks made sense as a Google-branded evolution of the netbook for the tablet shy. But in 2013, consumers still don't understand why there are so many versions of Android - much less what Google's Chrome OS is or who it's for. With the Chromebook Pixel, Google's cloud-happy notebooks have created a full-on identity crisis. 

(See also Google Chromebook Pixel: Bold, Beautiful And Very, Very Expensive)

Chromebooks Are Already Confusing

Following a leaked video and a typically detail-sparse report from The Wall Street Journal, Google has launched the Chromebook Pixel, an HD touchscreen notebook that will run on its Chrome operating system and retail starting at $1,299. The Pixel, with its high price and Google-built bare bones operating system is an odd bird. With a 239-pixels-per-inch display, the aptly-named Pixel one-ups Apple's 13" Retina MacBook Pro and its (paltry!) 227 PPI seemingly just for the hell of it. 

Oh, and it's a touchscreen, too, meaning you can smear your fingerprints all over that beautiful display.

The touchscreen means that beyond "taking on" the Retina MacBooks, Google's Chromebook Pixel will also compete directly against Microsoft's over-hyped, overpriced Surface tablets. But for all the buzz around hybrid devices that blur the line between notebooks and tablets (Lenovo Yoga, anyone?), consumers don't seem to have the same hunger for them that they have for "pure" tablets. 

The advent of the touchscreen notebook was a weird side effect from 2010-era iPad panic - there's no evidence that consumers even want a device that combines the power of a laptop with the finger-friendliness of a tablet. And if there was, a pricey notebook with a kajillion pixels running on the hamstrung Chrome OS probably wouldn't be it.

Missing The (Price) Point  

Want a powerful notebook with a (pretty) nice screen for around $1,200? Buy the $1,199 13" MacBook Air. Want to spend a little less for a slightly weirder device, or hung up on Windows 8 for some reason? Buy a Surface Pro. Drunk? Buy an Ultrabook!

Google has gained market share in recent times by offering well-built, affordable alternatives. Android tablets like the Nexus 7 and even existing entry-level Chromebooks can chip away at the competition because Google can afford to undercut the its competitors on price - the most important spec of all. The Chromebook Pixel seems to have forgotten that lesson. 

At $249 and $199, the existing Chromebook line is a smartly priced alternative for users heavily invested in Google's cloud ecosystem. Starting at $1,299, Google's touchscreen Chromebook Pixel can only hope to attract inebriated would-be power users who wandered into the wrong aisle of Best Buy.

On the Venn Diagram of people who need a serious computer and people willing to put up with the limitations of the Chrome OS, that little center slice is altogether empty.

Photo by Mark Hachman.

People are buzzing about a supposedly leaked video (below) that supposedly shows the Chromebook Pixel, a touch-screen laptop supposedly designed by Google. It's gorgeous. And coming on the heels of the Nexus 4 smartphone, and the very slick work that Google did with Jelly Bean, this product furthers the impression that Google has started to get really good at design, as some people have been noticing lately. 

TechCrunch has the whole story of where the video might have come from and how it made its way accidentally onto YouTube. It's not worth repeating other than to say that there's a company in Mountain View, Calif., that seems to be run by a former Google engineer and maybe makes videos for Google, and apparently they got hacked and this video got leaked. 

Who knows and who cares. Our own Jon Mitchell believes it's a real product, and he's a leading authority on Google. Check out the video of a world "where all your things are always wherever you are, and your computer actually gets better over time." If this thing is for real, I want one. 

The privacy-obsessed don't seem to think much of Google.

A survey of consumer confidence found Mozilla to be the most trustworthy pure Internet company when it comes to user privacy, the organization eagerly announced. Out of companies generally, Mozilla broke into the top 20 in the study, which was conducted by the Ponemon Institute.

The top 20 includes plenty of other tech firms, including Amazon, eBay, Intuit, IBM, Microsoft, HP and even oft-loathed telecom carriers Verizon and AT&T.

Notably absent? Google.

It's worth noting that this survey is a measure of consumer sentiment, not actual privacy features. Google gets very high ranks from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in its annual Privacy Scorecard, which tracks how major tech companies score on major issues of privacy. Twitter and the ISP Sonic.net topped the EFF's list last year, but Google ranked third thanks to its privacy policies, transparency about user data requests from governments and legal and legislative advocacy on behalf of protecting user privacy.

The EFF doesn't include Mozilla in its Privacy Scorecard and declined to offer an off-the-cuff score for the nonprofit. 

Mozilla vs. Google - Who Can You Really Trust More? 

Mozilla is making a big deal of its ranking, and has been making user privacy a very public priority for some time. Despite questions about its effectiveness, the organization has been proactive in incorporating Do Not Track technology in its browsers. Mozilla espouses a six-point philosophy when it comes to user privacy and generally tends to be transparent about its intentions and activities related to how it shares and protects user data. 

At the same time, Google - which has more complex privacy issues to contend with as a search engine, email provider and major player in mobile computing - has itself been pretty transparent on privacy, doing things like publishing regular transparency reports outlining the growing number of government requests it receives. Google tends to comply with those inquiries, but does so judiciously and has decried the ease with which governments are legally able to snoop on users' electronic communications. 

At the end of the day, both Chrome and Firefox are secure, privacy-friendly browsers - as are their other competitors. But defending privacy for Google is inherently more challenging given the company's enormous size and broad product line. And it appears that Google is not doing a great job of portraying itself as a privacy-friendly organization.

That could be a big problem. Moving forward, such perceptions - even more than objective actions and policies - could be crucial competitive differentiators.

Lead image courtesy of Shutterstock. 

Two hundred bucks for a laptop with a 320GB hard drive and 100GB of free storage space on Google's cloud sounds llke a steal. But will it be enough to get normal people to start using Chromebooks instead of traditional laptops? Google is hoping so.

Monday morning, Google's Chromebook team announced the Acer C7 Chromebook, a 3-pound notebook that is one inch thick and boasts an 11.6-inch high-resolution screen. The Chromebook runs Google's Chrome OS and Chrome browser. It's meant to be used online. You can get all the specs here.

In the "good news, bad news" department, the C7 boots up in 20 seconds (good) but has only 3.5 hours (huh?) of battery life.

The Acer unit comes on the heels of Samung's $250 model announced last month: See Finally, A Properly Priced Google Chromebook. 

The Affordable, Connected Computer

The notion of a lightweight computer that's constantly connected to the Internet has long held appeal, in theory anyway. Others have tried it, including New Internet Computer (NIC), a startup funded by Larry Ellison and run by my pal Gina Smith more than a decade ago.

But nobody has ever been able to make this idea work in real life. Customers just don't seem to want these machines.

Google positioned the original Chromebook as a low-cost and low-hassle solution for busineses. Why dish out big bucks for a bunch of Windows PCs or Macs, and then spend even more money paying techies to keep them updated, when you could just buy a low-cost Chromebook that had all its apps in the cloud and could keep itself up to date?

Great pitch, but it didn't work, partly because initial models were far too expensive. And partly because the hardware itself lacked polish. Many units went out with faulty trackpads, for example. All that improved somewhat this spring with the introduction of new Chromebooks and Chromeboxes - but even those machines got mixed reviews: See new Chromebook & Chromebox Are Good Enough To Grab Minds & Market Share and Why The New Chromebook Still Doesn't Cut It.

Aimed At Entry-Level Consumers

Now Google is focusing the new Chromebook as a machine for mom-and-pop home users who just want a simple way to get online, where "your stuff is always available and everything just works." 

Google is touting a feature that lets you create multiple accounts so that mom, dad and kids can share a single machine. 

Will this thing take off? Is the world finally ready for a network-attached computer? For $200, it seems like a no-brainer.

What do you think? Would you buy one of these? Let us know in the comments below.

Image courtesy of Google.