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So Google has finally copped to developing an operating system–Chrome OS, a software platform “created for people who spend most of their time on the Web, and…designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems.” It is an extraordinary market play. And an unsettling one. For it seeks to place Google, which already collects vast amounts of data about our Internet use, at the very center of our information experience. The privacy implications of that are, of course, horrendous.

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A noteworthy metric in the latest mobile browser share report from StatCounter: RIM’s BlackBerry has been making some meaningful gains in the world-wide mobile browser market. According to the research house, which tracks page views by browser on mobile devices and the desktop, RIM has boosted its share of the market quite a bit since the beginning of this year.

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The architects of Google search are holding court at company headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., this morning offering what promises to be a sort of state of the union on search. Overseeing the event, dubbed “Google Searchology”: Udi Manber, VP of Search Engineering, and Marissa Mayer VP of Search Products and User Experience. Key subjects: the challenge of solving every user problem, mobile search across multiple platforms and different UI schemes, and greater user customization through tools like SearchWiki and Google Search Options, a basket of new services just announced.

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Apple’s recent desktop refresh couldn’t have come at a better time, because February was a lousy month for Mac sales. Apple saw double-digit declines in sales of the desktop for the month, according to the latest NPD data. They were down 16 percent compared to February of 2008.

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Macworld 2009 is over, but the rumors that prefaced it and were then left unaddressed, remain. Two in particular: an updated iMac and a redesigned Mac mini–both of which failed to make an appearance during Phil Schiller’s Macworld keynote, though it was widely believed they would. The refresh may happen yet, however. Apple has on many occasions uncrated new products on the heels of Macworld.

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Number two on Phil Schiller’s list of three announcements: iWork ’09. The next iteration of Keynote, Apple’s presentation application, offers some new object transition features: object zoom, a swing transition (Schiller demos it with a Bush-to-Obama slide that gets a laugh from the audience). There are also some new text transitions and chart animations. Finally, Apple’s offering a Keynote Remote application. It’s an iPhone app, of course.

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Apple may not announce any new product categories at MacWorld come January, but it will uncrate an update to at least one old one: the Mac Mini. An “Apple corporate employee” tells Wired that the diminutive desktop has received a long overdue upgrade that’s to be revealed at the annual expo.

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Jobs invites Jon Ives, senior vice president for industrial design, to the stage to explain the evolution of Apple’s design and manufacturing process. Looks like the “brick” manufacturing process could be true. …

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Astonishing. The average prole spends more than 25 percent of his or her time online at work on personal activities. That’s the word from IT consultancy Voco, apparently having just discovered that the Internet, which essentially puts a concert hall, movie theater, TV, brokerage firm, shopping mall, garage sale and family/friend gathering on every employee desktop, can be–gasp–a distraction in the workplace.

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Economic softness in the states is widespread, but apparently it stops short of 1 Infinite Loop. Though consumer spending on electronics is generally trending lower, it’s trending higher for Apple products.

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