Google announced its plans to add a "presentation" feature to its Google Documents app and possibly add other applications to the Google Apps suite by year-end. Google keeps pushing its web-based apps as an alternative to software suites like Microsoft Office. Its portfolio of online applications includes documents, spreadsheets, email, instant messaging, calendar, blogging, among others. The search giant also lets web-based applications work in disconnected mode with the recent introduction of a browser extension called Google Gears.
"Does [presentation] round out our suite? I think it is a great component to add in, and I think there are probably others," said Matthew Glotzbah, director of product management in Google's enterprise division. "Every day we get asked about the other Google properties. What about YouTube? What about Google Notebook? What about Blogger? What about Google Groups? From my view, those are all candidate applications that probably would have a strong following if they were part of the Google Apps offering. When we get to those, and if we get to those, remains to be seen."
Even though the Google package offers nowhere near the feature set of Office, the idea of keeping documents stored online and accessible anywhere is compelling. Google claims its goal with Google Apps is to enable communication and collaboration in a new and more efficient and effective way.