Google Apps Suite to Become a Real Suite
Google's unofficial motto may be "Don't Be Evil," but in the case of CEO Eric Schmidt, "Don't Look Evil" might be just as appropriate. He always looks like he's taking pains to come off as an unassuming guy who wishes nothing but the best for his competitors. Even when he's talking about Google moves that the company's rivals might have every reason to be nervous about.
Today at the Web 2.0 Expo here in San Francisco, during an onstage interview with John Battelle, Schmidt was flipping through a jokey presentation when he dropped a minor bombshell: The slideshow was being done in a Google presentations app that'll go live in the next couple of months as part of Google Docs and Spreadsheets.
The announcement wasn't a shocker--TechCrunch was rumormongering about such an app back in February--and we didn't actually see the service's interface or features, just a (very) plain slideshow conducted with it. So it's way too early to know whether it'll be pretty crude, as most existing online PowerPoint "killers" are, or something new and interesting.
But the mere fact that we now know for sure it's on its way is worthy of note. Google now has a word processor, a spreadsheet, a calendar, an e-mail app, a database, and a presentation package. It has, in other words, every one of the major components that Microsoft offers in Office. And it offers them for free (and most of them, with tech support, for a measly $50 per year in the form of Google Apps Premier Edition).
Like I say, this is kinda big, but Schmidt never goes all Dr. Evil. Battelle, not unreasonably, peppered Google's Schmidt with questions about whether the presentation tool was yet more evidence that the company was mounting a serious assault on the Microsoft Office hegemony. And Schmidt got all shucks, pointing out that none of the Google apps compete with their Microsoftian equivalents in terms of features, although he (rightly) said that Google's doing some cool stuff with online collaboration inside of productivity programs.
Time was when folks kept predicting that a full-blown Google Office would suddenly explode on the scene and change everything. That never happened, but something at least as interesting is going on: Little by little, Google is building out a real Office competitor. It still wouldn't make for a very satisfying Office replacement for most people, but I could see it evolving into something that could within a couple of years--especially if Google launches a version that can work offline as well as when you're connected, which it surely will.
If I were Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer, I'd be profoundly troubled by such a prospect. But for us people who use office programs rather than sell them, a truly powerful and free (or dirt-cheap) Google suite wouldn't sound evil at all.
Google's own blog has a little more detail on all this, including the fact that the presentations package will use technology from a Google-acquired San Franciscan/Australian startup called Tonic (the blog entry also has a somewhat nauseating pregnancy metaphor which describes the upcoming app as a "bun...in the oven").
Let's end with a poll....
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I would be very suspicious of Google mining your 'office' work for tidbits of information as your creations streams through their servers. And who knows who might ride along just to see what you were doing. Corporate assurances for your privacy are just that, assurances, which are not necessarily tamper proof as the services of USPS or Fedex. Even if you use an easy to use and automated version of encryption, the application would need to be scrutinized very, very thoroughly for traps and other attack potential.
Schupo31
I can only say,user beware!
Google apps as replacement of MS office? hahaha. OpenOffice.Org is absolutely free, and It's much better than google apps, but hey, do you know why it's still nothing than MS Office??
Please do not adore google too much. It's just a nice, tiny, free little application. Not more than that.