Google, two days before the announcement of the iPad by Apple, put mock-ups of a new product that would ride on the hype of the device–a browser-based Chrome OS for tablet computers.

Chrome OS was designed primarily for netbooks. Netbooks will not be the extent of it’s use however–it will work with an array of web enabled devices–each with very different input methods, available screen space, and processing power.

Stephen Shankland writing for “DeepTech” at CNET believes that Chrome OS may be a better sell for tablet computers than netbooks, because netbooks are often used as a primary computer which may make a browser-based OS a less appealing option.

Google Chrome Frame is an open source plug-in that outfits the Internet Explorer browser with HTML 5 and other fantastic open web technologies.

Initial tests using Google’s Chrome Frame show that Internet Explorer 8 runs 9.6 times faster than without Google’s technology.

Google released a statement that Chrome Frame not only speeds up the notoriously slow browser but provides Internet Explorer users with HTML 5 support, which are both necessary for use with advanced Web applications.

To start using Google Chrome Frame all web developers / designers have to do is add a single tag:

Once this tag is detected, it switches automatically to using Google Chrome’s ultra fast WebKit-based rendering engine.