Google Docs and Spreadsheets, essentially their online office suite, was launched to rival the Microsoft Office programs Word and Excel. There was one program in Microsoft Office that was missing from Google’s office suite, the presentation software PowerPoint. It won’t be missing for long.
Yesterday Google CEO Eric Schmidt confirmed that Google will indeed complete their office suite and launch an online PowerPoint clone. We can expect this new program to be tightly integrated with other Google services like Gmail, Google Calendar, Gtalk, etc.
Word is that much of the upcoming Google presentation software was built in-house, despite the recent acquisition of Tonic Systems, which makes presentation technology software. Further speculation says that only certain components from Tonic Systems will be integrated into Google’s final product, such as “Download as PowerPoint” or whatever they decide to call it.
I think this is a great step forward for Google’s office suite. The ability to edit PowerPoint presentations from anywhere, even non-Microsoft Office enabled PCs would be very beneficial. So many times I find myself switching between computers to perform different tasks, and it is thanks to Internet software like Google’s office suite that life can sometimes flow a little bit easier.