After much braying from the sidelines, Google watchers are finally getting what they wanted with the launch of an Web-based productivity suite. According to InformationWeek, Google will unveil Google Apps, which will feature e-mail, calendar, instant messaging and Web site creation services. Later this year, it will also include word processing (Writely), spreadsheet and collaboration features, and start selling the package for a fee to corporate users. Apparently, Google doesn't want to go head to head with Microsoft. Instead - and I find this difficult to believe - little, old Google wants to grab foothold with corporate users by offering tools so that people can open Office documents shared on the Web. That does not seem to make much sense given most corporate computers have Office installed. You have to believe Google wants a chunk of the lucrative Office market that Microsoft has dominated for far too long. With broadband becoming more ubiquitous and Web-based services increasingly accepted, Google must see the multi-billion dollar productivity market as a natural vehicle to drive revenue beyond its Golden Goose, AdSense. Over time, I can easily see lots of people adopt Google Office as their primarily productivity suite given documents can be accessed from any computer connected to the Web. It will also help that it appears Google Apps will be free for individuals, and I suspect reasonably price for business users.
   Reaction across the blogosphere as been refreshingly pragmatic.ZDNet's Dan Farber said business users aren't going to "defect" from Office or other products overnight, and that Microsoft is developing its own suite of hosted Windows Live applications. "But, there is disruption in the air, and the Microsoft Office monopoly is definitely going to face a major competitive threat in the near future," he said. Read/Write Web offers up a nice list of Office alternatives. Scott Karp doesn't buy into the idea Google is not aiming to butt heads with Microsoft. "It’s so plainly obvious that Google wants to take over the enterprise software market from Microsoft and the rest of the old guard — the question is not IF but HOW, i.e. what’s the business model? Will Google use enterprise software as a Trojan horse for advertising inside the corporate firewall, or will they fall back on the old model of licensing fees?". Paul Kedrosky, who has tried and been impressed with Google Apps, said Google new suite is "mostly directed at people sending "Enterprise 2.0" business plans my way: If you're thinking of doing something squarely in Google's enterprise-lusting aim you need to ask yourself one question only: Why? What makes you think that you can do it so much better than Google can that the inevitable free Google Apps product doesn't kick your ass out of the office market?" It's an interesting comment given his VC firm, Ventures West, recently made a first-round investment in DabbleDB, online spreadsheet service.