The anonymous blogger who earlier today posted "screenshots" of an early build of Google's Chrome OS has admitted he faked the images.

Before he confessed, however, numerous blogs and Web sites took the bait and accepted the screenshots as legitimate.

The screenshots were accompanied by a backstory in which the blogger said he worked for a company that supplied parts for Acer, and had witnessed a demo of an early version of Chrome OS, the Linux-based operating system that Google announced yesterday.

With interest in Chrome OS off the charts, it's not surprising that bloggers, reporters and users were fooled into thinking that the images were legitimate. News of the operating system, which some have said poses a long-term threat to Microsoft but not necessarily to Apple, was featured prominently yesterday on sites that generally don't follow technology news closely, computerworld.com reported