Google will be holding a press event later this afternoon where the Internet giant is expected to show of its new Google Chrome operating system.

The webinar will be hosted by Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management and Matthew Papakipos, engineering director for Google Chrome OS and will offer, “a look at the work that has been done thus far, an overview of the technology, and launch plans for next year,” Google said in a statement on its website.

It is not known whether the OS, or part of the code behind it, will be officially released after the event.

Google Chrome OS, which is a browser-based operating system, was announced in July this year with the open source platform initially available on netbooks from the second half of 2010. It will be based on the company’s Chrome web browser. It is said to be designed for people who spend much of their time on the web.

The release of Chrome OS will again bring Google head to head with Microsoft, currently enjoying good press surrounding the release of its latest operating system, Windows 7. The two IT heavyweights are already battling it out in the search space, with Redmond’s revamped Bing engine looking to claw back some of Google’s search dominance.

The webcast can be viewed here from 6pm UK time.