Google's formal unveiling of its anticipated web-based Chrome operating system that poses a real danger to Microsoft is not just a dark cloud spoiling Bill Gates's Vista or any other proprietary OS his engineers can dream up.

The "do not evil" folks at Google announced it in a typically warm and friendly post. But Google's friendliness can be more than a little unsettling. Chrome also opens up what will be the biggest battleground yet for the new-age war between profits and privacy. It's also great news for governments that always want to snoop into your lives.

There are some great things about Google's planned Chrome OS. It will be absolutely free to users, unlike Microsoft's OS. And Chrome will be open-source, meaning that, like Mozilla's increasingly popular Firefox browser, Chrome's innards will be available to web developers, and that promises a flood of likewise free and extremely useful extensions and applications.

But your privacy? That's history — history that will be stored on some giant company's computer, available not only to marketers and other businesses but to the government.

Whether you think that's good or bad is up to you.

The market has plenty of faith in Google. Google, along with others, fell Monday morning after the long holiday weekend. But as of 1 p.m. today, Google was trading at 403.68 a share, up 7 points from yesterday's close.

That's approximately $403.68 more than each GM share is currently worth.

No mystery why Google is capturing the fancy of the market right now: The top PC makers have already said they're extremely interested in the Chrome OS — that was a given.

Google Chrome, as an operating system, is planned to be entirely web-based, which means you would no longer have to store those silly applications — or the documents you've created using those applications — in your own computer. Your computer would fire up instantly, taking you right to the browser. So much more efficient than lame-ass Windows, no matter Microsoft calls it these days.

And Chrome lets Google handle it all: Store your files and your applications online. What a relief. And no more bulky, balky Microsoft Word — what a blessing.

Fine, and most coverage today is cheery; some accounts refer to Chrome as just a "long-term threat" to Microsoft. But that's not the important thing. The revenue implications are staggering, and not just for mighty Google. Information is power — especially marketing power — and even more of your wants, desires, and activities will be downloaded by Google, already a formidable advertising giant. There is no way that this information will remain only in Google's hands — there's too much profit to be made in selling or renting that information to other businesses. And all that information just sitting there is far too tempting for governments and police agencies to simply let lie there.

We already know that we're in the midst of an Industrial Revolution in which most of the standard industries are irrelevant. The profit potential, not only for Google, is enormous, in part because of the knowledge about consumers' habits that will be gathered and then parsed out to companies.

Congratulations to the New York Times for scooping just about all other outlets with the news: "Google Plans a PC Operating System." But the old-media dinosaur missed that crucial revenue angle — only to have its new-media readers fill in the blanks. Which they did in no short order:

• "John": "Wow - more delicious user data for Google. I'd love to see the privacy policy for this thing."

• "Sensible": "Would Google have the right to view and archive everything we ever do on a computer running Chrome OS?"

This won't be the last word on what could turn out to be a watershed moment in figuring out how to profit from the web. But here's what another online Times reader has to say:

• "Tom": "Pardon me for being suspicious, but 'free' usually isn't all it's cracked up to be. Seeing as how Google makes all of its money through ads, I'd be worried that Google's OS would be watching my net behavior and sending me ads throughout my use of it. Also, Google has gotten in trouble before for its not so subtle recording of people's search habits, etc.

"Why use a flavor of Linux made by a corporate giant (I've heard Chrome is based on Linux) when you could just as easily get the free, non-commercial-interest Linux online tailored to your needs, as well as OpenOffice? I would actually even be willing to put WinXP and a paid version of MS Office on a netbook rather than risk the ad intrusion or giving Google the ability to store and watch my documents.

"Sorry Google, "Don't be evil" as a motto hasn't been convincing so far."