Soon Chrome will know if you are standing up, sitting down or running around. Orientation is just one of the new things that will be included in future versions of Chrome. Google wants to give as much support as possible to apps that run off the web. This is very much in line with the company’s push towards a cloud computing based future.

But why should Chrome have to figure out which way is up, you may ask? Think Chrome OS and the answer is quite obvious. Having in built support in the OS to understand what the hardware is telling you about how the user is positioned is hugely beneficial to application developers. This way, they can easily call on set routines and pass them on to the application in order to set events in motion. Games and apps that are controlled by tilting or rotating the device can be easily developed due to support like this. Apple already has this technology on its iPod, iPhone and iPad devices.

With the Chrome browser constantly vying for the top spot of fastest browser, expectations are high for the OS equivalent. Expectations are that the next generation of netbooks that come bundled with Chrome OS, will be cheaper and more radical than the iPad is currently. How these expectations will be met or surpassed, is yet to be seen. At the moment, however, this is one of the few tantalizing glimpses we have at the features that could be unveiled when the OS finally emerges.