Tonight Google is set to host a semi-premiere for its new operating system, Chrome OS, at its Mountain View headquarters in California. Chrome has been in the works since July of 09. Though the final product is under construction, the event is focused on highlighting some of its key features and give out certain technical details. People seem to be getting antsy waiting to hear all the goodies that might come their way. What it also means is that Mac and Windows have a third person to worry about. And of the three companies, Google seems to be the overwhelming crowd favorite. This cloud based operating system could disrupt the current business models and begin a shift in how technology is used in the future.

Another story going around is that of the Google phone. No official statement speaks of the release of the phone anytime soon, but a report at TechCrunch has led a number of industry watchers to believe it will indeed be a reality in the new future. What exactly the impact of this product is a little tricky to assess. Some warn Google from entering the hardware business as it might actually harm their current service oriented industry. Hardware is a complex industry and the returns are much lower than in the service industry. At the moment they seem to be doing most things right and almost always have better than their competition. Venturing into the phone industry could alienate some of its current partners who manufacture handheld devices.

And another product that has Google in the news is its visual search prototype: Image Swirl. A limited version of it is available on Google Labs for a trial run. Image Swirl is Google’s attempt at thwarting the Visual Search service provided by Bing. It is an interface for picture searching that uses a cluster of similar images laid out in a tree like manner. It’s quite intuitive to use and uses visual segregation of images based on their meta-data. This is a far cry from the grid format used by Google previously. For the first time, Google has tried to implement a snazzy looking interface which was up until now pretty much a white background with thumbnails on them.

Google has been around for a while, but never did we hear of an OS, a phone , a new search algorithm, a visual search interface and a host of other products all come out of their warehouses at pretty much the same time. The economic text books talk about competition in markets as a favorable factor. Bing seems to have pushed Google out of its comfort zone and its driving both companies to come up with radically new services for the consumer who is never tired of better technology. For the folks sitting at home and watching this unfold, this could be a very Bingy Christmas and a Google-y New Year!