Using your computer just to check your email is quite a chore, and sometimes, rather dangerous. It may take several minutes for your computer to whir, click and churn before it splashes an ominous-looking log-in screen. Once you do enter your details correctly, it gives you a song and dance of sorts, but still no email. An overwhelming clutter of icons, a busy-looking task bar and abrupt notifications that intimidate you about your virus checker being out of date still fetch you no email. Meanwhile, your bloated operating system (OS) may automatically start several megabytes of download for a software patch without your knowledge. You eventually wade through menus and icons to read your mail.
Thugs, criminals and a whole bunch of creepy fellows you wouldn’t ever invite into your home freely invade your inbox through snippets of code. They subject you to phishing attacks, attempt to infect your computer with malicious software or flood you with emails that embarrass and offend you.
Fetching emails on a computer is quite unlike filling a room with light using a light bulb. Switch on the bulb and the room is immediately illuminated. Switch it off and it’s gone. It’s so simple, it can be done by children.
Too smart to be simple?
If computers are so smart, why can’t they simplify themselves? Especially if all you wish to do is browse through your email, Facebook or Skype, buy tickets, job hunt, shop, download music, stream videos or explore all the delightful new paradigms the Internet serves up so rapidly? More importantly, would you ever buy a car that crashes like your computer?
Google feels the crux of all these problems lies with the OS. It’s that clever jumble of software that helps Microsoft amass a huge fortune through monopolistic business practices, enables Apple to mesmerize people and empowers Linux to bring digital freedom to consumers across the world.
Yet, the OS itself is decades old and has grown brittle with age. Shockingly, Internet support is an afterthought, especially for Windows. Hence all your problems.
Imagine an OS designed from the ground up, boldly and intelligently embracing the Internet. Fortified against viruses and other attacks, it is also shorn of everything else, thereby offering you nothing but a safe and efficient Internet experience.
Google took a seemingly innocuous step in this direction by launching a new browser called Chrome. Surprising, because Google entered the highly competitive browser market almost 18 years late. Yet, according to official sources, it has already captured 30 million users worldwide within its first nine months. People apparently love the idea of a light and safer Web browser that renders all kinds of Web pages faithfully while blacklisting potential harmful sites. Best of all, the Chrome browser is free, so go to www.google.com/chrome to get started.