Google offered a glimpse of simplified computing for consumers with the launch of its new operating system.

The Chrome OS, which should be available on smaller laptops in time for Christmas next year, is a direct challenge to the dominance of Microsoft’s Windows franchise.

Google is aiming to rewrite the rules of operating systems with a web-based OS that does little more than act as a browser to enable users to get to all the internet applications they use daily, such as search, Facebook and webmail, as quickly as possible.

At a media event at the Googleplex HQ, in Mountain View, California, Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, said: “We believe that the web platform is a much simpler way. There is a very important need in the market place now — and that is what we are trying to fulfil.”

Sundar Pichai, the vice-president of Product Management at Google, showed off the free cloud-based software, describing it as a “better model of computing”. He said that the Chrome OS would be easier and more secure to use. It would also be faster to start up.

Other operating systems can take up to 45 seconds to launch, but the Chrome OS takes only 7 seconds, he said.

The Chrome OS will be available initially only on netbooks from manufacturers that Google is already working with, including ASUS and Acer. The company will specify certain hardware requirements to run the software, such as solid-state hard drives.

Google will not charge hardware makers or users to use the software because it believes that anything that brings more consumers to the internet benefits the search giant.

When asked if Microsoft was in Google’s sights Mr Brin said: “We don’t think that competitively about it. We certainly hope that it is going to be widely adopted.”

Despite his words the software giant will be watching the development of Chrome OS with interest and perhaps some trepidation. Windows runs on more than 90 per cent of computers in the world and although the Redmond company has been making bold moves into cloud computing, its business is still mainly based on selling software.

Google says that for most people a complicated software system, with its own security issues and updating, is no longer necessary now that the web has developed to a point where users spend the majority of their time simply using their browser.

Mr Brin said that he felt computer users had to spend way too much time keeping software up to date, secure and running properly. All these things could be done automatically with a cloud-based operating system such as Chrome.

Machines running Chrome OS will have to be connected to the internet and the operating system will not support more complex applications such as photo-editing.

Google says that a web-based system has significant security benefits. Every time a user restarts the computer the operating system verifies the integrity of its code and, if the system has been compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a reboot.

Google has made the source code behind the operating system available to developers so that they can design new applications. Executives said that they hoped that the Chrome OS would be used on all computing devices.

Google said that all data in Chrome would automatically be housed in the so-called cloud, or on external servers, and the internal hardware.

Google is looking into diversifying its business into books and mobile computing with its Android operating system. Internet search advertising constitutes 97 per cent of the company’s $22 billion (£13 billion) revenue. Analysts said that Google’s operating system push was an ambitious long-term strategic move.

Computer manufacturers might enter into business partnerships with the search giant to produce Google-branded laptops running the Chrome OS, executives confirmed.