In a bid to take cloud computing to a whole new level, introduced the "Chromebook" today -- a pair of laptops, built by Samsung and Acer respectively, that run entirely on web-based applications.

Using Google's suite of applications, including Google Docs, Gmail and, of course, Google's web browser, Chrome, the Chromebook will run entirely off of software housed on servers accessed remotely through a Wi-Fi or 3G connection.

Chromebooks will be available for purchase online starting June 15 in the United States and will also be sold at outlets like Amazon and Best Buy.

Google is boasting that, much like the iPad and other solid state hard drive netbooks, the Chromebooks will turn on instantly, with little to no warm up time.

Google is not the first company to posit that a computer could run entirely on web-based applications, but back when the idea for the technology was originally proposed by Oracle's Larry Ellison in the mid-1990s. But back then, the technology just wasn't there to make the dream a reality.

Fast-forwarding to 2011, with just about every tech company and their mother talking about "the cloud" and the technology is very real. It will be interesting to watch how the Chromebook.

Americans are certainly used to the idea of using the cloud, whether they know it or not. But it will be interesting to see how consumers handle a laptop that runs all of its programs and stores everything it produces on faraway servers.