News.com provides screenshots of Google’s Android operating system, straight from this week’s Google I/O conference in San Francisco. It is a touch screen interface with a home screen that looks a lot like the iPhone.

Like the iPhone, lots of local applications will come out of this given the open developer environment and the natural ties between mobile and local. Meanwhile ease of use could push these platforms and applications into the mainstream, causing more incentive to innovate than we see today.

These factors will lead to lots of useful applications outside local as well (such as social). Note the mobile Streetview image. Very cool.