Google Apps Premier Edition Launches - One Small Step Towards Google Office
The big news tonight is that Google has released a premier edition of its Google Apps package (previously known as Google Apps For Your Domain). I've been following the Web Office trend for a long time and, like everyone, have been particularly obsessed with Google's gradual progression towards a Web Office suite. Tonight is another step towards fully challenging Microsoft Office, but there is still a ways to go. More on that in a minute, but first a quick overview of what's in Google Apps Premier.
The new 'suite' includes the existing Google Apps tools - Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Page Creator and Start Page. New to the package is Google Docs & Spreadsheets, a significant edition considering that word processing and spreadsheets are mainstays of Microsoft Office. A comparison between the free edition and premier is here. Also new of note is APIs "to integrate with your existing infrastructure" and ability to integrate with 3rd party applications and services. 'Best of breed' web apps is another theme we obsess over here at Read/WriteWeb - so APIs and 3rd party features will go a long way towards making Google Office an attraction for external developers and startups. Google wants to be the center of the Web Office ecosystem, a very wise strategy.
CNET has a good summary of the other changes:
"The new Google Apps Premier Edition costs $50 per user account a year. It includes around-the-clock telephone support, and 10GB of storage per user compared with 2GB. The new edition also includes a guarantee of 99.9 percent uptime for Gmail and application programming interfaces that businesses can use to migrate data, enable single sign-on and do other integration. A free version targeted at educational institutions, Google Apps Education Edition, offers the same features as the premier edition except for the storage size. There is also Google Apps Standard Edition, which is free, but lacks the features of the premier edition."
Over at Techcrunch, Marshall Kirkpatrick waxes philosophical (for some reason I had Orson Welles' voice in my head as I read the following):
"Beyond competition and concerns, tonight is a good time to recognize the incredible force of innovation that Google is as well. Its nearly full-service suite of sophisticated, integrated online services is something of historic proportion. Google’s technological brilliance is only beginning to be recognized. What do I mean by that? I mean that with its powerful algorithms to analyze and contextualize information, combined with its growing catalogue of information to analyze - Google is an epoch defining company. Send the world’s business communication through Google and the machine gets a whole lot smarter."
For now, I'm a bit more cautious about this news. I see it more as just another step for Google towards a full Office suite. There's still no presentations app, CRM.... or JotSpot for that matter! Google Apps is still a fairly loose package of web-based office apps, not as integrated as it could be yet. The strength of a Web Office suite is collaboration and other web native functionality - whereas desktop office suites have much more sophisticated functionality. There's also the small matter of offline functionality (which is starting to appear in web apps, but slowly) and whether businesses want to host their office with an external party like Google.
But the gap is definitely closing, no doubt about it, between Google and Microsoft in office software. I'm waiting with interest on Google's next step - which I'm guessing will involve more integration between their apps, a la something like Basecamp or Central Desktop. I'm also waiting to see some of the new web native features that JotSpot (a Google acquisition last year) had, plus of course missing apps like presentations.
Previous R/WW Web Office/Google coverage
Google Office: Image Gallery
How Google's Gmail / Docs & Spreadsheets Integration Directly Targets Microsoft
Microsoft vs Google Heats Up
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Interesting, I wonder how well you can hook into the API to provide offline access to the information stored within the system? I know that I am online most of the time but it would be ideal to have a good local access to information.
I'll have to go read up on the API.
Posted by: Rick Curran | February 22, 2007 2:47 AM
In the short term, lets be honest this is not going to have a profound impact upon the sales of ms office any time soon. i think 'docs and spreadsheet' is great but a huge mind shift.
there is however a huge potential for users who want to set-up or move away from the ms exchange culture - there are massive benefits to be had quickly. people have been using webmail for over 10 years now - so no big deal.
what I really want to see next is a 'blackberry' style add-on for java phones for gmail/apps - with the introduction of push email on windows mobile 6/hotmail it can't come too soon.
Posted by: jdbradford | February 22, 2007 3:33 AM
Well at least you know that the stock price will go up soon. So whoever bought shares of them should be happy as Google is beginning to charge for more products...finally!
Posted by: Ali | February 22, 2007 4:58 AM
This is not very impressive…..It just the same google hype…about business applications that can never be any better than the offering that is currently available from Open Office…..The cost of the Open Office solution per user is 0….and unlike the goolge offering it is open source…..this means that if your business needs to add some functionality they can do it….
The Adelph.us social network currently offers its members ‚ÄúLightapp‚Ä? the best business productivity application that is currently available‚Ķ.and it includes a presentation application‚Ķ.and all of the applications are compatible with Microsoft office‚Ķ.and it can be all be used online today for free‚Ķ..
Posted by: william | February 22, 2007 5:35 AM
The styles of Microsoft and Google are going to become of utmost importance in defining the way people work in the next 20 years.
Microsoft=big, heavy, showy programs.
Google=light, focused, simple programs.
I think you'll see Google (and other web suites) adopted by people who don't need a lot of sophistication, but MS office is light years (ok, maybe 5 years) ahead for people who need to make attractive, complicated charts, or presentations that are reliable and professional. It takes time and money to make professional grade products, and MS has been doing it for years.
Posted by: not-so-fast | February 22, 2007 10:53 AM
Orson Welles, please. Hard to say if Marshall was serious when he wrote that blast of hot Google hype, but I'm with you on this one: a bunch of bought-in, loosely integrated web apps do not make for a full office suite, let alone historical (or should that be hysterical? :)) innovation wotsit.
Posted by: Juha | February 22, 2007 10:58 AM
I'm very excited about their API for 3rd party integration. That is one thing they certainly have on Microsoft. I have to say though that while Google's productivity Web applications are intuitive and simple, they pale in comparison to Microsoft's Office Suite, regardless of platform. Really though, if people do decide that using your office suite online is a better approach, then Google has the advantage in its head start.
Posted by: James Simmons | February 22, 2007 11:31 AM
As a longtime user of Google Docs, it's been invaluable for collaborative purposes, but it is still useless in regards to formatting for paper. Every time I want to print something out I have to copy+paste to Word or Open Office and then fiddle with the margins and page numbers. Until this is resolved (for all I know maybe it is, but it isn't set up very intuitively) I think it's hard to view Docs as a comprehensive alternative to a desktop office application.
Posted by: Ben | February 22, 2007 1:00 PM
Won't "the small matter of offline functionality" be handled by Firefox V3? This very blog reported recently that F3 will do offline.
If it can be handled in the browser, isn't it better there than on a site-by-site basis?
Posted by: Andrew | February 22, 2007 2:38 PM
Andrew, yes I think the Google-Firefox relationship is very significant going forward. But note that even though Fx 3 will handle offline functionality, the Fx developer on this noted in the comments to that post that individual web apps still need to be modified too.
Posted by: Richard MacManus | February 22, 2007 3:47 PM
One thing about the Google office suite which is interesting is the fact that Google is a brand name. I think that if most businesses recognize that, they will accept documents produced by Google as what it is. Just like businesses have embraced Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF, Google will share in the workflow and will have it's own niche within the business world, either for quick document drafts or fast document reads and sharing without worrying about dispatching an email when the document's ready.
It's a quick, light tool that does what it does.
Posted by: Don Vaillancourt | February 23, 2007 3:10 PM
Google apps vs. MS Office is a lot of hype. The target market for these two products is as distinct as are their product features (read not-so-fast's post). Corporations aka big businesses are highly risk-averse, Google will succeed in the small biz/individual segment, this is the market that has always been the sore spot for MS but sweet spot for Google.
Posted by: Mia D | February 25, 2007 2:44 PM
There is a rumor about a Google PPT comming out this week. This would be completely Googletsyle... just a week an hype after launch of GApps. Ai also think Gapps is more a competition to MSExchange then to offce... but as you are "obsessed" avout it... the API is the best thing.
For example we are developing an FREE open source "business application platform" (think salesforce.com). Our first application is working tightly integrated with GOOGLE APPS. http://www.applicationexchange.com.
Posted by: edbong | February 27, 2007 9:27 AM