Google's Chrome OS won't be an immediate threat to Windows, but it may force Microsoft to reinvent its operating system more quickly into a product that takes full advantage of the Web and can move more nimbly across devices and form factors, analysts said.

Microsoft is unlikely to have been surprised by Google's announcement late Tuesday that it is working on a new OS for people who "spend most of their time on the Web," as Google described it. From what has been revealed about the Google Chrome OS -- which won't be available until the second half of next year -- it aims to bring the ease of use that Google has brought to Web-based applications, such as search and chat, to netbooks and eventually to full-size PCs.

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