Tuesday could see the arrival of a new preview of Chrome OS, but consumer Netbooks aren&39't thought to be ready just yet.

Google could finally be ready to shed a little more light on the progress of its Chrome OS project.

The company sent out invitations to an event next Tuesday, December 7, in San Francisco "where we plan to share some exciting news about Chrome," according to a copy of the invitation. No further details were provided.

Chrome OS Netbooks were once expected to arrive before the end of the year, but that timing appears to have slipped over the last several weeks, as Google is now expected to merely have a beta software version ready by the end of the year, with consumer-oriented systems not ready until 2011. The idea behind Chrome OS is to create a lightweight browser-based operating system that would run just Web applications, as opposed to native ones.

Another possibility for the event is that Google is ready to show off the Chrome Web Store, which was also expected earlier in the year but has slipped. CNET will be there to provide coverage both during and after the event.