Google has long marketed its Chromebook line of inexpensive web-based laptops to organizations that need multi-user products, like schools and businesses, but now it's even easier and less risky to let random strangers use your Chromebook.
A new feature for Chromebooks now allows the setup and administration of public internet terminals.
"The new Managed Public Sessions feature delivers a highly customizable experience for both customers and employees without requiring a login," Google said on its enterprise blog.
"Administrators can easily customize any Chrome device to be a public session device using the web-based management console. The features that you'll find in the console include the ability to set the default sites and apps a user sees at login, custom brand the homepage, block sites and apps that shouldn't be accessed, configure device inputs and outputs, and set timed log-out sessions," said Google.
The new feature should make Chromebooks a top option for libraries, hotel lobbies and retail stores -- locations that benefit from free internet access catering to a rotating and random group of customers.
Sure, many of these locations already offer internet access, but that often requires complex networking and monitoring. This is the equivalent of plug-and-play internet kiosks. Tether a Chromebook in a public location, type in the Wi-Fi password and start up a public session. Private data is automatically erased at the end of every session, and managers can determine the programs and access granted to public users, as well as block particular internet sites (though I'm sure library porn will always be with us in some form or another),
As a bonus, if tragedy strikes and the Chromebook is vandalized, damaged or stolen, it's fairly cheap to replace.
Chromebooks aren't for everyone, and their limited hard drives can make them less than optimal as a primary device, but it looks like they now make even better peripherals.