Google Inc. plans to launch software similar to Microsoft Corp.'s popular PowerPoint program as the two companies vie to dominate the online experience....``This completes what most users of PCs consider the Office suite,'' said John Battelle, who leads Federated Media Publishing and grilled Schmidt about the product at the conference....Microsoft spokeswoman Lisa Koetz said competition is good for customers, and Microsoft is listening to the 450 million people who use Microsoft Office to ensure it is meeting their needs.
Even though Google continues to claim that its online productivity suite is not intended to compete with Microsoft's Office product, its latest addition is beginning to raise eyebrows. The Mountain View, Calif. company disclosed Tuesday that it is about to release a presentation and slide show tool in the coming months. The product would join its word processing software, released last August, and its spreadsheet application, launched in October.
Google Inc. plans to take another swipe at Microsoft's Office suite of tools by adding presentation software to its Google Docs Web-based tools for word processing, e-mail and spreadsheets.
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, announced the new feature here today during a keynote address at the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Expo. Although Schmidt offered few details, he said that Google would add the ability to generate and share presentations to the Google Docs lineup but stopped short of calling the new feature a competitor to Microsoft's PowerPoint tool.
