John Battelle talking to Eric Schmidt of Google (Eric Schmidt in Conversation with John Battelle) has just announced that Google is adding a presentation tool to Docs and Spreadsheets. At this point the timeframe is next month, I believe.
Not a competitor to MS Office … yeah John (and I) are calling bullshit on that. Yeah this could be the killer app. Microsoft, worried? Naw. Zoho and the others … yeah, they should be really worried. Really worried.
Now onto the Doubleclick purchase. A very strategic move. John is trying to get an answer to how the price jumped $1.1 billion so quickly. The making sense part of this is that getting Doubleclick into better targeted areas.
How about people who are customers of both companies … like John…Eric says not to worry.
Irony, Microsoft and AT&T griping about anti-trust concerns over Google. Yeah advertising is a choice, you know Google hold a lot of the cards now. This is something that we will have watch.
Google, YouTube, Viacom & copyright … negotiating tactic? Yeah. They sued even after Google removed the problem of content.
Google’s take on S3, like GoogleApps and GoogleApps for Enterprises. Interested in the space, direct competitor? Hmm, a yes/no answer. No, but we’re in the space and doing it a little differently. Hmm. Could Google Disk be coming? Maybe Google Cache (caching service)? We could really start the rumours!
While Google strongly supports net neutrality, they could survive, but it is extremely important for the growth and incubation of new ideas and businesses. Let’s hope they can influence the governments.
Future outlook: “Mobile, mobile, mobile”. It is the power of stuff in your hand. Sounds like I’d watch Google for picking up things in the mobile space, given what Eric said (in an SEC friendly way). Also local search, hmm.
First thing Eric thinks about in the morning … e-mail. Wow for me? Coffee. Eh, maybe if I think about e-mail first I’ll be able to become a CEO!
Issue for Google…scaling. What needs to be done, how early we are in the process. Yes, very true.
Last question…Data portability. We create so much data…while Google wants to aggregate data, will they let us control our own data? Yes, Eric says. Not a trivial process. But Google won’t trap us in their systems.
And even though Eric is on the board of Apple, he’s still waiting for an iPhone! LOL!
More on this from O’Reilly Radar
I agree — this definitely (and obviously) is an Office competitor. And, not a moment too soon.
These Google apps just keep getting better and better. SOon, they will offer some serious competition to Microsoft (and are pretty damn close to that, right now).
This reminds me of an article from Media 3.0 — “Cracked Windows” — in which Shelly Palmer basically asked if Windows, the operating system, was becoming irrelevant. Google Apps seems to e undermining the need for an OS, and constant Office updates.
Where does Microsoft fit into all of this? It’s hard to tell.
Allie
Allie, yes. And from talking to the Zoho folks right after that (I couldn’t resist), I think they are worried, eventhough they said they weren’t. Google just has so much money to throw at these apps that everyone should be scared.
Except for users, who will probably get some awesome tools in the bargin.
It’s a little backwards. Google wants growth and new ideas and has all these great applications coming through the pipeline but it is against net neutrality, the very thing that will strip any incentive to ensure these applications are successful on a robust internet.
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