What possible rivalry could there be between two companies, out of which one has been founded over 30 years ago and is running the global software show, while the other is just seven years old and has the purpose to help users search the dense jungle of today's Internet? If we were talking about any other companies, I would have advised you to bet on the first one, but when we're talking about Microsoft and Google, no rules apply. Through what miracle has a company that's been around for just seven years has managed to turn itself into a threatening and dangerous presence for the giant from Redmond? Some years back, when the Internet was just a newborn, Microsoft has analyzed the baby and decided that it shouldn't get too involved in it's growth and development, because it hadn't had any chances of reaching adulthood. It rather took upon itself the task of educating another son from the great family of IT technology, the PC. The events that followed seemed to prove the great OS master right, and after the dot.com crash, the other founding fathers shared the same opinion.
The story would have probably ended here, and the Internet would have probably remained just an e-mail vehicle, if it wasn't for one of the older brothers, who decided to take charge of its education and discipline. The beginning has not been quite a bright one, since the little kid had turned into a rather rebelling and disorganized teenager, and Google didn't have enough money in order to supply it with expensive gear.
However, slowly, but surely, with just a handful of Linux servers placed in the right places, with some search algorithms which nobody can really understand and which are still giving headaches to the experts from the rival companies and with a few commercials well placed in the educational breaks, Google has managed to take this child into the world and make it a lot friendlier. And the result is represented by the few billion dollars accumulated in the company's bank accounts, which have become a real threat for Microsoft, whose favorite child, the PC, hasn't been able to keep up the pace with the Internet.
Leaving the joke aside, the Microsoft vs. Google confrontation actually represents the battle between too concepts. Even if Microsoft still lingered in the sweet illusion that the PC is in the centre of the network, Google has understood a lot faster that the network is actually a huge PC. And that's how, in just seven years, Google has managed to occupy a position that is quite threatening for Microsoft's supremacy.
And now Google wants to extend its capabilities into the software as a service world and the search giant is using Google Appls against its Redmond rival, to tackle the world-wide popularity of Microsoft Office.
Google Apps has been available as a free service since August 2006 for small and large businesses. It includes the large storage-capacity service Gmail (where you can store not only emails, but chat history and even files from your desktop, with the help of a Mozilla plug-in), Google Calendar (shared calendaring), Google Talk, which is an instant messaging and voice-over-IP application, and the Start Page feature for creating a customizable home page on a specific domain.
According to Google’s statement, Google Apps has been used until now by more than 100,000 small businesses and hundreds of universities.
A simple calculus shows that if Google were to convert at least half of Google Apps Standard Edition users into Premium Edition users, the company would win around $2,500,000 annually (assuming that half of the 100,000 subscribers are businesses that have at least 1 Google Apps account). The sum is rather modest compared to what Google gets from advertisement and is infinitesimal compared to MS Office revenues.
But now Google is adding Presentations into the mix. Eric Schmidt Google CEO was speaking at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco and was using a beta version of Google Presentation to display his slides.
Also Google Official Blog has some details about the new features, including a possible timeframe for the launch: this summer.
The lack of an alternative to MS Powerpoint to complete the Docs and Spreashets was considered one of the weak points of Google Appes. It seems like they solved the problem and when Presentations will be launched we will have an almost complete Office web-based suite.
Still, Google Apps relies on an entirely different concept from Microsoft Office. In Google Apps, the PC is considered an extension of the Internet, merely an access point towards it. That is not the case with Microsoft Office, which was developed with the PC as the center, having the Internet connection as an extension. In other words, comparing Microsoft’s Office with Google Apps is much like comparing apples and peaches.
But, even in this situation, the addition of Presentations into Google Apps is a wake-call for the Redmond company. Will they listen?
