Google OS Rumor Reignites After Mystery Surfers Recorded

Rumors that Google is developing its own OS have once again been ignited, as traffic-measuring experts Net Applications revealed that one-third of visitors from Google computers are running computers that block recognition of their platform.  According to Net Applications, this is not an incidental situation: Google would have to be purposefully choosing to mask the identity of their computers' OS.

"We have never seen an OS stripped off the user agent string before. I believe you have to arrange to have that happen, it's not something we've seen before with a proxy server. All I can tell you is there's a good percentage of the people at Google showing up [at Web pages] with their OS hidden" Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president of marketing and strategic alliances, Net Applications

Google themselves, unsurprisingly, have declined to comment on the situation, but that has done nothing to staunch the flow of rumors.  Some are predicting a desktop version of the search giant's open-source Android OS, deployed as a way of introducing Linux to entry-level users.

Meanwhile, others believe Google is being a little more cautious, and instead working on an application infrastructure that would bridge local hardware and network applications, such as its online office suite and GMail.  Similar suggestions were made at the launch of Google's browser, Chrome.

[via BGR]