The long dream of the Googlebook

<figure> <img alt="A photo of a Dell XPS Googlebook on a table." data-caption="Dell’s XPS Googlebook is just one of the devices Google needs to be great." data-portal-copyright="" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/268755_Google_event_Dell_XPS_Googlebook_ADiBenedetto_0002.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" /> <figcaption> Dell’s XPS Googlebook is just one of the devices Google needs to be great. </figcaption> </figure> <p class="has-drop-cap wp-block-paragraph">In late 2010, an up-and-coming Google executive named Sundar Pichai <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQzAUaZ26co">took the stage</a> in front of a bunch of reporters and explained that Google had a big new idea about laptops. In the future, he said, the only thing you'd need on your computer was a web browser - that was where all your apps, data, and connections would live going forward. Your computer didn't need much storage, Pichai explained, or any fancy hardware, because the cloud would do the work. The software designed for these new laptops, <a href="https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html">Chrome OS</a>, was an enormous bet that the web would eventually overtake everything.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Chrome OS (which eventually became <a href="https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2022/7/14/23219443/google-chromeos-not-chrome-os-branding">ChromeOS</a>) has been, in many …</p> <p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/tech/997972/googlebook-laptop-chromeos-android-history">Read the full story at The Verge.</a></p>