Chrome OS and Android may “merge” into one in the future.

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Speaking at a press conference this week, ostensibly to discuss the new netbook platform but which covered various points of Google’s business, Schmidt and company founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page discussed the open-nature of the new platform. While in their initial blog post about Chrome OS they indicated that it and Android would remain separate, and that “choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google”, there now seems to be signs that the two will shift from parallel to integrated projects.

The trio also discussed the nature of open-source software and how they do not envisage Chrome OS as a direct competitor to Windows. In fact, Schmidt said, “Microsoft is welcome to put Internet Explorer on our operating system,” but that “it’s highly unlikely they would do it. They would have to port it and the port is not trivial … the ball is in their court.” Referring to Google’s well-known “do no evil” pledge, he highlighted the fact that because Chrome is open-source “even if we had an evil moment [to block out Microsoft], we would be unsuccessful.”

The first netbooks running Google Chrome OS are expected in the second half of 2010.

Google To Launch Chrome OS, Taking Aim At Windows

Even as Microsoft begins to make some headway against Google in Internet search, Redmond now finds the tables turned in the PC operating system business.

In short, Google has targeted a new market: Windows.

In a post to its corporate blog late Tuesday, the company announced a new project called the Google Chrome OS – the company’s “attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.”

The company said Google Chrome OS “is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks.” The new OS consists of a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel, the company said.

Later this year, Google said, it will open-source the code. Netbooks running the software will be available in the 2010 second half, according to Google, which said it is already talking to partners about the project.

Google already has developed one operating system – Android, which is targeted at mobile phones, and which itself is expected to be used in some netbooks. The company said the two are separate projects.

“Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android,” the company said on the blog post. “Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.”

Google said Chrome OS is intended to be fast, simple and secure. “The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web,” the company reports. “And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”

The company said the software will work on both x86 and ARM chips.