Google targets PowerPoint but denies building Office-killer

Adam Turner
Wednesday, 18 April 2007 20:46

Opinion and Analysis

Even as Google prepares to add a presentation app to Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google chief Eric Schmidt continues to deny the suite of free online tools is any threat to Microsoft's Office cash cow.

Schmidt used the new feature to make a short presentation at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco on Tuesday, but he didn't reveal a timeframe for when it will be released.

Pushed as to whether the free Docs & Spreadsheets would now compete with Microsoft Office, Schmidt said: "We don't think so. It doesn't have all the functionality, nor is it intended to have the functionality of products like Microsoft Office."

How long can this charade go on? Not even Schmidt's most senior people can pretend anymore that Google's online apps don't pose a threat to Microsoft. Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager of Google Enterprise, is coming out to Sydney next month for CeBIT Australia. I asked him about the threat Google Apps posed to Microsoft and he was surprisingly candid;

"Certainly Microsoft is a competitor of ours and I think what we're doing with apps certainly can be perceived correctly as being somewhat of a threat to Microsoft. Having said that, when you look at our product level we don't really see our products as substitutions for Microsoft Office."

Why can't Google just come out and say what is clear for all to see? Google is on a collision course with Microsoft in the office application space.

Google has been rumoured to be working on a presentation feature for some time, Code-named Google Presently - a play on Writely, the name of the online document editor Google acquired last year and combined with an online spreadsheet to create Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Features reportedly include the ability to convert a document into a presentation, create slides and view the presentation in full-screen.

The official announcement of a presentation feature for Google Docs & Spreadsheets would seem to be the final nail in the coffin for rumours that the search engine giant is in acquisition talks with online Office clone ThinkFree. ThinkFree Online is one of the most well rounded and fully featured Office-like suites available.

With the addition of PowerPoint-like features, the name Google Docs & Spreadsheets obviously becomes obsolete. Why don't they just come clean and call it Google Office?