Following up from my blog post on Google Chrome's OS annuncement I decided today to go searching for small start ups that maybe already have created a OS in their browser. Often when companies are building innovative software they are faced with the classic "build or buy" scenario when deciding what to do. I was sure I’d unearth something or someone who had already build an O/S in a browser and low and behold iCloud appeared! Check out the video introduction:
Expect Google Chrome's OS to look something a long the same lines as this but with an even cleaner UI. The question for recruiters will be how to use it to benefit their cloud recruitment strategy? Well with a cloud drive as part of the offering synchronisation with your office hard drive will be important so you can work on the go. It will be interesting to see what other portability will be on offer to see if you can build ATS integration into the browser. Some of the open source ATS out there might be able to integrate with the platform which will make it easier for recruiters to work off their browsers which would be a nice piece of functionality to have if the security was tight enough when working from an airport for example.
The real question for me though is when will we see a recruitment O/S?
Aggregation is already becoming important as we head into the start of FY10. Expect a lot more desktop aggregation and clever desktop search tools popping up like Xobni, in the coming months as well as a continuing explosing of mobile apps. What I would be delighted to see would be a browser which allows me merge my RSS feeds, my facebook updates, my tweets and my hotmail, gmail and work emails in one place. Let me check my ATS feeds, have Skype imbedded and allow IMs from both Gmail and Messenger that would be great. Besides that integrations with a news aggregator like Newsgator would deserve a tip of the hat. Google Wave, meets iGoogle, meets Google Chrome OS, plus Google docs, plus Google News, plus Tweet deck, plus Messenger, plus LinkedIn integration and multiple utilities like Firefox have on offer would be a start.
