Print - It's Official: Google Takes on Microsoft Office, Servers

Over the past few years, Google has repeatedly denied that it ever intended to take on Microsoft in the lucrative market for office productivity software. But this week the online search giant delivered a shot across Microsoft's bow, delivering an Internet-based suite of productivity services that does just that.

Dubbed Google Apps, the new suite of services combined previously available email, instant messaging, calendaring, word processing, and spreadsheet solutions with an affordable corporate-oriented licensing scheme that vastly undercuts Microsoft's more expensive but dramatically more powerful offerings. Google's offering will likely be of most interest to cash-strapped smaller companies, but Google is clearly aiming for the high-end as well.

Google is offering two versions of Google Apps. A free version will be ad-supported and include 2 GB of email storage space, while Google Apps Premium, priced at $50 per user per year, will provide 10 GB of email storage space. Both versions of the suite include Gmail email, Google Calendar and Google Talk instant messaging capabilities that are tied to custom domains as well as access to the Google Docs (word processing) and Google Spreadsheets Web-based productivity services and Page Creator, a Web-based Web page creation tool.

Analysts say that Google Apps is the most potentially damaging competition to Microsoft Office since Lotus fielded its office productivity suite in the mid-1990s. But Google is taking a different approach than Microsoft's traditional competitors: Instead of providing a yet another desktop-based office productivity suite that mimics Microsoft Office, Google's services are only available via the Internet. This ties into Google's strengths and exposes a weakness in Microsoft's strategy: Though the software goliath offers both desktop software and Internet-based services, it has done nothing to move the core capabilities of Microsoft Office to the Web.

For Microsoft, the ramifications of Google's offerings are immense: While few of Microsoft's biggest customers will likely move to Google, many smaller companies are sure to test the waters, lured by Google's low pricing. But Microsoft still retains some important advantages: The Office applications work offline and are far richer and feature-packed than Google's offerings, and Google's ability to support corporations is a big question mark. But this first version of Google Apps is obviously just the first shot in what promises to be an interesting battle. We can expect Google to expand its services and Microsoft to begin offering more compelling Web-based Office solutions.

For more information about Google Apps, please visit the Google Web site.

This may attract a few of the Mom and Pop businesses out there, but no large corporation will trust Google to provide applications and data storage, let alone poke holes in the corporate firewalls to allow the connectivity. Even some of the Mom and Pop's will balk at this...after all, Google is the company that owns MySpace, and a good many parents already don't like them just for that reason. Also, the support structure comes to mind...imagine this...Good old Bob at the local Mom and Pop grocery store in small town Montana is creating next week's ad to be put in the local Mom and Pop newspaper(you know the one...David Letterman features stories from them all the time). All of a sudden, the cable modem dies because George cut a line while digging a ditch a mile outside of town and Bob gets some 404 type error in Internet Exploder. What does he do? Who does he call? He'd be better off using Open Office if he is looking for a MS Office alternative. It is a good fit in situations like this and for the basic home user. --tayme

agreed. no corporation of any size should trust Google with their information, considering their insidious [non-]privacy policy. where will it end? selling corporate trade secrets to the competition to make billions more? MUAHAHAHAHAH! XP

"...I thought Fox owned MySpace." I could be wrong. I thought that I read somewhere that Google had acquired it.

Small companies, especially those that already advertise through the AdSense program will probably jump at this opportunity. Most of the bigger ones definitely won't trust Google with their information. Anyway, it looks like this may dent MS's share.

You are probably right...the only time I see MySpace is over my kid's shoulder...I must have assumed, and we all know what that does ;-) --tayme

There's a disturbing secret as to what (Office) is really all about.....I won't get into it, but do some math and some heady research and maybe you will catch my drift.....even you will find it rather disturbing, as pro (Microsoft) as you seem to appear.

"There's a disturbing secret as to what (Office) is really all about...." Bill Gates was the second shooter at Dealey Plaza?

FYI, I was only quoting treeorc (for the most part(. The words in the brackets were mine. I'm sure treeorc knows of disturbing secrets pertaining to Windows, Office, and other MS software that he is unwilling to share with us for national security reasons.

"Bill Gates was the second shooter at Dealey Plaza?" ya, didn't you see the "powered by Microsoft Codename Pegasus" sticker on his Fisher Price rifle? ;) XP

"What does he do? Who does he call? " Nice FUD,Tayme. His data is probably at least as secure (if not more so) than it would be on his POS Gatetway, or "Frankenstein PC" assembled by some reseller in Canada. Competition is good, and as Paul correctly pointed out, Google is proving to be much more agile in this arena than the MicroDinosaur. Office may be better, but in some cases, "better" might not matter.

@lotsamystuff "Nice FUD,Tayme. His data is probably at least as secure (if not more so) than it would be on his POS Gatetway, or "Frankenstein PC" assembled by some reseller in Canada." Here's the big difference - data on my network I control. I handle the backups. I handle moving backups offsite. Should a HD fail, I can easily recover from that. Data stored on Google I have no control over. How do I back that up? How do I ensure that Google won't lose it? How do I ensure that Google won't be hacked? (Look at their desktop search security issues.) How do I access my data when my Internet connection goes down? For any company these are serious issues. I like competition. I just see problems with Google trying to get a foothold here.

"... and as Paul correctly pointed out, Google is proving to be much more agile in this arena than the MicroDinosaur." I'm glad you've done your research, lotsa. Read this: http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=278 Oh, and by the way, you're probably aware that all hard disks fail. That's why there is something known as "backing up data", in case you haven't heard about it. Windows Home Server seems like a good and option for small "mom and pop" shops too. At least they won't have confidential data resting somewhere on Google's servers.

"How do I ensure that Google won't be hacked?" likewise, how do you know Google won't take your confidential business information and sell it to advertisers or competitors? XP

I do have to mention that I've found Google apps helpful for sharing information for our board for our (adult) kickball league. Beyond that, I can't find any other reason to use Google apps.

How do we know MS won't DRM us out of our own files or shut our systems off if we don't pay an extortion fee? WGA opens the door to all sorts of possibilities that make your desktop just as vulnerable to search and seizure as any other external storage facility.

"Nice FUD,Tayme [sic]. " Not trying to spread FUD...just asking the question. Its a legit question, too...most of these people would be the ones that call their computer case the hard drive...Like you said, competition is good. That's why I said that Open Office would be a good choice for the mom and pop's. Better, in my opinion, that using Google for important data. --tayme

great....now we have a pre-pubescent "bonch jr." good job learning from daddy.... XP

My daddy is a saint! Unlike someone else's mother, who will remain nameless (and pantsless).

@tayme "This may attract a few of the Mom and Pop businesses out there, but no large corporation will trust Google to provide applications and data storage, let alone poke holes in the corporate firewalls to allow the connectivity." Though Google is targeting small businesses - the kind whose IT departments don't manage giant e-mail systems - it has signed up General Electric (Charts) and Procter & Gamble (Charts) for small trials. http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/21/magazines/fortune/lashinsky_pluggedin_google.fortune/

I've mentioned this earlier too: Google and Apple get a lot more press than they deserve. Now, I'm not saying they make bad products. All I'm saying is that Wall Street and the media love them. Example: A few days back (Jan 2nd, I think) there was an article on the front page of nytimes.com that spoke about a new online "questionnaire" for job seekers that was implemented by someone in the staffing team at Google. The questionnaire has questions like, "What's your favorite color" and "Do you own a dog." The article said that responses to these questions will be used to determine if the candidate is a good software programmer. NY Times seemed to praise Google for coming up with this system (even though the person at Google was himself not aware of whether there was a correlation between an individual's preferences and his programming skills). Now, if Microsoft had come up with something of that sort, people like lotsa would have had a field day making fun of "Monkey boy" Ballmer. Of course, that's not the case with Google.

"Yawn!" tired? maybe it's time daddy bonch pulled the sides up on your crib.... XP

"The questionnaire has questions like, "What's your favorite color?" and "Do you own a dog?"." add that the long list of personal stats the company collects about you.... XP

"i'll [sic] let the Mackie's [sic] figure that one out...." Once again, "Waehtorn/PC-Bonch" is the first to mention the Mac in a non-Apple-related post! Congratulations, troll!

"add that the [sic] long list of personal stats the company collects about you...." Whenever I sign on to this site, I'm asked for my eye colour. I always ignore the question, but I'm baffled as to why it's there. I can't imagine why the "Windows IT Pros" that run this site would care.

@lotsa: "Whenever I sign on to this site, I'm asked for my eye colour." I've noticed this too...there are other questions in the mix, but I have seen the eye color question once. If you are seeing it more often, then maybe they are interested in hooking up with you! ;-) --tayme

I don't think the Google offer will have much success, I prefer rich clients, than thin clients/rich servers, but may be I am just conservative. In any case, the users will decide. I like seeing competition and choices anywhere. BTW how many posters are below 18 years old in here?

"the first to mention the Mac in a non-Apple-related post!" think again. (translation: think different) your Mac buddies are the ones trolling (typical). i do recall that a "stevejobs" posted the #3 comment. XP

" i do recall that a "stevejobs" posted the #3 comment." He never mentioned Apple or the Mac. LEARN TO READ. I wasn't talking about general trolling (something you're also good at, btw).

"Though the software goliath offers both desktop software and Internet-based services, it has done nothing to move the core capabilities of Microsoft Office to the Web." It gets worse. This quote from Robert Scoble (!) says it all: "Microsoft is run by people who aren’t taking risks and don’t see the value in Web stuff. Why can I say that? Name a single Microsoft Internet product/service that made you say “wow” in the past three years. I can’t name one and I’ve been looking." http://scobleizer.com/2007/02/23/microsoft-has-no-innovators-dillema/

"He never mentioned Apple or the Mac." "I wasn't talking about general trolling" L2R, losta. his handle is "stevejobs" on a Windows site. obviously you don't get the point about what is trolling. "This quote from Robert Scoble...." ....funny, but who's trolling now? silly losta. don't you realize we still don't give an airborne lump of fecal matter about what he thinks? ditto for you. XP

"....funny, but who's trolling now?" It's not trolling. I'm backing up my contention that Microsoft is slow to adopt compelling web-based software and applications. "his handle is "stevejobs" on a Windows site. obviously you don't get the point about what is trolling." I don't chare what his "handle" is; I only care about his comment. The "handle" is irrelevant--much like the majority of what you have to say. "don't you realize we still don't give an airborne lump of fecal matter about what he thinks? ditto for you." Gee, then you really shouldn't comment on my posts so often. How's the view from that glass house, "Waethorn/PC-Bonch"? Better put down that stone before you hurt yourself.

"It's not trolling. I'm backing up my [contempt for] Microsoft" is how that should read. "I don't chare [sp - there you go! OSX spell checker not working?] what his "handle" is; I only care about his comment." of course you do - he's "stevejobs"! just follow allong like another lemming. "How's the view from that glass house" looks great up here. i build my house on a solid foundation. your house on the sand, below, doesn't look so sh!t hot though. the waves are coming to wash you away, then where are you gonna be? XP

Not to surprise you guys too much, but it is 2007, not 1995. Microsoft's strategies and products are a bit more sophisticated than they used to be. Microsoft has been all about integration, interoperability and the web for several years now. They have been steadily moving their products (and their many customers) more and more towards a web-based infrastructure. I suggest you put aside your personal biases and take a close look at the complete line of Microsoft products and technologies. If you see them as stand alone products, you will be disappointed, but if you see them as a suite of complementary products, then you will be awed. In doing this, pay special attention to Sharepoint 2007, how the rest of Office 2007 works together, and live.com's new offerings to small businesses. The computer market is huge and very diverse. The resistance to change that is blamed on Microsoft has more to do with simple technology change management than anything Microsoft has or hasn't done. Microsoft has been historically very good (still far from perfect) at providing their customers what they need, and when they need it. They understand that getting too far ahead of your customers is bad for business, so they meet their customers where they are. This is something we cutting edge geeks simply have trouble understanding, since we tend to be further ahead than most. Something that amazes me is how little talk there has been in the industry about SharePoint. SP is a far more innovative, important, and useful of a product than Google's office suite. In large part, because it meets the customers where they are.

"Something that amazes me is how little talk there has been in the industry about SharePoint" on the contrary, i use Windows SharePoint Services in SBS 2003 as a major selling point to small business clients. and yes, the integration into Windows XP Pro and Vista Business is also a point that i make in demo presentations. resellers and IT consultants that regularly make presentations to prospective clients should really look at the Microsoft Technology Demonstration Toolkits (TDT's) that are commonly part of the Action Pack Subscription and load them onto a laptop with a good amount of RAM (2GB), because an image (Virtual PC image, that is) is worth 1000 words. ;) XP

i should also point out that i do also regularly make presentations on the "step-up" to Office SharePoint Server 2007, but this has been mostly from my own installs and configurations, not from an optimal preconfigured setup. Microsoft has also started a new program where technology consultants, and the like, can download trial versions of software in VHD form (preconfigured Virtual PC hard drive images) from the following site: microsoft.com/vhd it's pretty easy to sell a product like this if you demo it on the spot. i recommend a decent dual-core notebook with a 15" screen (good balance between size and mobility) and at least 2GB of RAM to demo a virtual Windows Server OS and a couple of XP/Vista client virtual machines. the TDT kits also have scripted VHD's that run through day-to-day operations within the demo application/OS. obviously you can't just demo something like that and expect someone to put down a few grand right away, but it's good to have during part of the technology assessment stage of planning a server infrastructure. Microsoft also helps partners by offering a totally complete and thorough Business Technology Assessment Kit available on the partner site to get you moving - VERY COOL STUFF! XP