Google CEO Eric Schmidt claims the first netbooks running Chrome OS should appear later this year.

He didn't go into details and set a date, and it seems that Acer and HP will create the first Chrome OS devices. Schmidt says that Chrome OS and Android are very closely related, and that they could eventually merge.

Schmidt did not want to comment Microsoft's Bing search engine.  “I don’t want to talk about Microsoft,” he told Reuters. “We actually don’t look at market share at all.” [Sure you don't. sub.ed.]

Over the past year Google has launched two operating systems and a browser, clearly invading Microsoft's turf, and Redmond is just returning the favor.

More here.