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Monday, August 28, 2006

Google targets small biz

Source: Anil Dash's blog

Today Techmeme is having a flood of Google Office-Microsoft Office coverage. So in case you haven't heard yet, Google just launched the badly-named Google Apps for Your Domain, a package of free programs targeted at small-medium sized businesses that includes Google email, calendar, IM and a web page creator.

Anil Dash says "Feel free to poke someone in the eye if they say this version represents a competitor to Microsoft Office." "There are only 500 buyers of Office that Microsoft cares about." The Fortune 500. But Google is competing with Microsoft Office Live. I agree with Dash, though, that the small to medium sized business owner who is not tech-savvy is likely to be confused by both offerings. They might think Microsoft Office Live is a free version of Excel and Word - which it's not. And they may never even think of Google Apps for Your Domain because they only know Google as a search company.