Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) appears to be moving in the direction of having a new product launch every day. Over the weekend it said it would bring out its own internet browser. It also announced the launch of a video-sharing product for businesses.

According to Reuters, "Unlike YouTube, which is aimed at consumers, Google Video for business is designed to be shared among designated users within an organization's own Web domain, protecting executive speeches, product training, sales meetings or other employee video messages from unauthorized disclosure outside the company."

Because Flash video, the most widely used format, can already be put in password protected sections behind a company's firewall, it is hard to see why the new product would have much appeal.

Google has not had much success with its enterprise software. There is little evidence that the Google Apps desktop software is selling well. That may be because the company offers good free versions of the product. Most of Google's other productivity software including GMail, Google Calendar and Google Talk can be used without charge.

One of Wall Street's only criticisms of Google is that its move into enterprise products is not making any money. If that comment is fair, Google just dug itself a deeper hole.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Apps is a set of server-based word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software created to go after a number of the features of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows. While Windows uses the memory of the PC, Google's product runs over the internet on Google's servers.

Microsoft is getting sick of having sand kicked in its face. The big software company said that it would increase "the availability of its online services for e-mail and collaboration software," according to Reuters. The software had been available to smaller businesses but now it can be used by companies of any size.

Google claims that it has signed up 500,000 businesses to use Google Apps. That has to be a real headache for Microsoft.

Now, Redmond is forced to walk a fine line. If it offers too many services over the internet at too low a price, it could cut into its profitable Vista franchise. Most of Microsoft's margins are based on Windows, its server software, and Office. If the margins on those fall, the company's stock price is likely to take a large hit.

The news is another example of how Google is bedeviling the world's largest software company and hitting it where it hurts most, in its large profit centers.

Microsoft's problem may be that it cannot do anything about the problem other than match Google's products and probably drop what it charges. It is an unhappy option.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has become a more powerful force on the "desktop" of the Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone as of this week, changing the way its Gmail web-mail program interfaces with the iPhone's software as well as creating a more computer-like email experience on the now-ubiquitous smartphone.

Gmail now presents itself pretty much like it does on a PC web browser when used on an iPhone (with the most updated software installed, of course). That is, messages are synced across platforms. Read a message on your iPhone, it becomes "read" on your PC's web browser or laptop screen. Sounds like a minor update, but it's really not.

Apple and Google are working to make the iPhone one of Google's premier places for showcasing its content. From email to news readers to maps to documents, expect Google's entire range of online applications to be available on the iPhone soon. Missing from the iPhone is any trace of software from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), naturally.

Could Google soon be seen on many new Apple laptop PCs as the "software of choice," even though an internet connection is required to use most of those applications? Seeing as though Google saw more hits to its website on Christmas Day from iPhones compared to other devices, the two companies are making a compelling partnership case-study thus far, much to Microsoft's chagrin.

Although it hasn't gained much attention in the media, a revolutionary computer is now on sale at your local Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT). For just $199, you can buy the Everex gPC TC2502, a powerful PC with a hook: it is designed to run without using any Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) products whatsoever. Instead of Windows and Word, you get Linux, OpenOffice and lots of Google Apps.

The computer itself is pretty impressive. Here's what you get for your $199: a 1.5GHz VIA C7 CPU, 512MB of memory, an 80GB disk, an Ethernet port, stereo speakers, and a DVD-ROM CD-RW drive. You also get an operating system called gOS and a full suite of software from OpenOffice.org. The operating system is specially designed to work with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) applications like Gmail and Google Maps, and all software updates are free. The one thing you don't get is a monitor, but judging from the sidewalks of my neighborhood in Brooklyn, where working monitors routinely show up decorated with signs saying 'works perfectly!, please take,' that shouldn't be hard to remedy.

It's been a long time coming, but Google, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) "Presentation" web-based presentation application is now available. As always, some are billing it as a "PowerPoint killer," which is Microsoft, Inc. (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s ubiquitous presentation software that is the lifeblood of business people all over the globe. Google's already unleashed its word processor and spreadsheet software to the masses (as well as email services, of course), so the presentation portion of the Google Apps package was eagerly awaited, if for nothing more than fodder for comparison to Microsoft's PowerPoint by the media.

Much like the freely available OpenOffice software suite, Google Presentation can import and use Microsoft PowerPoint files, has built-in themes, text formatting and so forth. Google Presentation, of course, has built-in online collaboration and sharing, which is something many PowerPoint users probably would love to see instead of having multiple versions of the same presentation floating around on the corporate server somewhere. Google's connective collaboration is the single-largest jump it has over locally installed software packages. On features, however, it lags behind. But, would a customer rather have tons and tons of rarely used features or a way to have a team contribute to a single presentation, even if they were dispersed all over the globe?

E-mailing a link to an online presentation is a great feature of Google's new Presentation offering, although services like WebEx have done this with PowerPoint for years. But, emailing a link instead of having folks login to a secure website is a tad easier on all concerned, right? Once Google Presentation gets out in the wild during the rest of this year, the pundits will surely answer that question. We'll be listening.

Now that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has begun to go after Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Office, International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) wants a piece of the action as well.

Big Blue will launch a new, free office-like product called Symphony. It will be available on the internet, and it is free.

According to The Wall Street Journal "Symphony is based on software available from Open Office." The same foundation is used for Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) and Google's desktop applications processes. The product also has functions from Notes, a product IBM bought years ago. Notes was almost run out of the market by Microsoft. IBM hopes that the free software application will help it sell more recent versions of Notes, which includes e-mail and instant messaging.

Does the IBM launch matter? Probably not. Nor does the recent upgrade of Google Apps to include software similar to PowerPoint. Microsoft has about 500 million desktop applications running on PCs and the Journal writes the company has "sold 71 million licenses of its latest version of Office in the fiscal year ended June 30." The Office software sells for slightly more than $100.

Getting customers to leave Microsoft, with its huge installed base, is almost impossible.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 247wallst.com.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) seems to be having a whirl of a time determining if Google, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) 'Google Apps' really does pose a threat (however minor) to its billion-dollar Microsoft Office franchise. Maybe the company is leaning towards a yes, though.

This week, Microsoft launched a missile across the bow of Google Apps, distributing a paper that posed eight specific questions companies should consider before deciding on using Google Apps. With many large companies opting to supplement existing Microsoft Office installations with the web-based Google Apps programs (word processing, spreadsheets, calendaring, e-mail), Microsoft may be stepping up to defend itself more in the near future.

Google itself and some of its larger customers have stressed that the goal is not to replace Microsoft Office (yeah, right), and that Google Apps simply fits some situations better than a full-blown copy or license from the not-free Microsoft Office software. Microsoft's litany of questions released this week included these:

• Companies should question the actual number of users Google has "within the enterprise"
• Google's history of releasing "incomplete products, calling them beta software"
• Desktop costs will rise for companies trying to offer both Microsoft Office and Google Apps
  

Ironically, Microsoft is also questioning Google's reliance on advertising revenue even as it tries to catch up to Google in the internet advertising space's battle for revenue.

Capgemini, the largest computer consulting firm in Europe, will begin to market Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Apps to its corporate customers. It would have been hard for the big search company to get a better endorsement. Capgemini global outsourcing chief executive Paul Spence said, "Incorporating Google Apps Premier Edition into our offering is yet one more way that we are helping our clients adopt technological innovations within a robust and tested framework."

Google Apps has companies' e-mail, spreadsheet, word processing, and presentation software packaged into one bundle. The software operates on PCs with most of the processing being done on Google servers instead of one the PC itself, the way that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has done so far.

The move has to be considered as a fairly big blow to Microsoft Office. Since its launch, Google Apps has been characterized as a nice, inexpensive solution for small businesses. It does not appear to have been widely adopted even in that market, but having a large IT consulting firm offering the software could begin to change that perception.

Microsoft, which is beginning to market desktop software that operates on servers to compete with Google, does not need a big boost for Google right now.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is going to add to its Office applications on the online-front in the next "year or so," according to a recent Financial Times article. This move is clearly in response to Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) continued attack on Microsoft and its various product segments, in this case Google Apps.

Microsoft's probable first move in the online front is to allow spreadsheets and documents to be published on the internet privately so they could easily be worked on by groups of people -- a move clearly following Google's lead. Ultimately, Microsoft would like to begin offering full versions of Office online, but this is three or more years away according to the article.

It's very unclear if this move will have a significant impact on Microsoft or Google's financials, but one thing is clear: consumers stands to win from the heavy competition, as they would in any sector. In this case, Microsoft is streamlining its Microsoft Office to allow inter-office collaboration with simplicity due to Google's prior innovations in this area. This "competition is good for you" theme can also be seen in the video rental space; because of competition between Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), both companies are constantly cutting prices. While this is most certainly disappointing for investors, the consumers stand to pay lower and lower prices.

Cheers to competition.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) has two main cash cows at this moment: Windows and Office. Together, those two pieces of software (in all their iterations and versions) bring in the lion's share of revenue to the software maker. We're talking about tens of billions per fiscal year. Looking around the globe, there are free alternatives to both of those software franchises, though, which makes one think: why doesn't everyone use the freebies and stop paying for Microsoft's two big products?

The answer is bit complicated, so we'll attack the "Windows" question first. Microsoft licenses out the Windows operating system to almost all computer makers who then install it on the PCs they sell to the public and businesses (and everyone else). No customer probably told Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) or Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) that they wanted Windows -- there simply is no choice when buying a PC. Recent advances by Dell to make the free Ubuntu Linux operating system available on some PCs has happened, sure. But, the majority of the public just wants what they are used to, which is Windows. People love change, right? Wrong. There are then many (many) versions of Windows for servers and workstations that are sold as well.

Let's turn to Microsoft Office. Again, it brings in a ton of revenue to Redmond, even though there are full office productivity suites that compete with it. My guess is that many of you can't name one though -- and that is what Microsoft counts on, which is branding power. The full-featured OpenOffice productivity suite is pretty darn impressive (I've used it), and it's completely free and interoperable with Microsoft Office (not sure about Office 2007). Why don't more people use it then? Lack of knowing it exists is a possibility, and having to download the suite or order it for about $10 on CD may be obstacles. Plus, you can't find it on Best Buy shelves. If customers start becoming smarter and find out out about OpenOffice or even Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s Google Apps, could a large piece of Microsoft's kingdom come crashing down?

[Disclosure: I own MSFT shares as of 5-29-07]

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continues to subtly press its office productivity software into the hands of the masses, consumers and businesses. And yet, the company continues to say it is not targeting, as a whole, Microsoft's Office franchise, which requires a decent chunk of cash to purchase as well as installation on a PC (or network) to function.

Google's Gmail (email), Calendar (scheduling), Docs (word precessing) and Spreadsheet (calculations) require nothing but a web browser and an internet connection, while giving many "light" users the same capabilities as the Microsoft Office package. All for free. Will Google's services remain free? Who knows. One thing is clear -- it's incredibly difficult to give something away for free, then start charging for it in the future.

Google is now packing its services for internet service providers (ISPs) and other web-based portals what have millions of customers as a way to get that package of productivity software out into the hands of even more users. Its Google Apps Partner Edition packages all of the above-mentioned applications and more to give Google internet partners a complete bevy of web-based applications they can offer customers as a value-added service. Google even offers a pay edition ("Premier") that promises guaranteed availability and more email storage than its free editions. Will customers pay for the upgrade? These efforts are icebreakers for Google in seeing if it can create a revenue model off service subscriptions and outside advertising.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is the indisputed leader of internet search -- there's no question about that. Although I don't see the company being unseated any time soon by Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) or Ask.com, can the company continue to safely make all its cash from text ads on the internet? Google realizes that this probably is not wise over the long term, hence its recent spate of acquisitions and partnerships that will ingrain it into as many advertising avenues and mediums as it can muter.

What about other products? Google Apps, which includes spreadsheet and word processing software (but for the web only) is now integrated into the company's tagline, which reads "Search, Ads and Apps." Does that say anything about what Google is planning? Most likely, it does. Search is the base of the company right now, which is wildly successful and is bringing the competition to its knees. Ads is an area that probably reflects Google's intentions to monetize anything it can with advertising that is relevant and not annoying to its customers. But, "Apps?" Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets were just launched last year, and have received a mild uptake so far, but it that a pillar of Google's future?

According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, it is. Could Google be trying to dent Microsoft's market share for office productivity apps (except for demanding business users) with its free, web-based software? Sure it is, even if the company is not saying it. If it can make money monetizing its web-based applications to within a few feet of what it has done with Internet search, Google's revenue diversification plans will be well-established. Right now, the timing seems perfect for that to start happening, a fact I am sure Google us aware of.

After having read this Q&A with Google Inc.(NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt, I am convinced that the company he leads still wants to become the largest advertising network in the world in all channels that it can, even though it was not mentioned in the interview at all. The largest question is how successful its ambitions can end up being outside the web search market. That's a billion-dollar question, my friends.

Google's Eric Schmidt talks quite a bit about how Google's "Google Apps" will take on a portion of the Microsoft Office crowd (in effect, becoming a larger competitor than it already is) along with how Google is going to use YouTube in the future for running advertising around certain socially-networked video files (not clips, which are limited in length).

When Schmidt says the following in response to Google being called a "one trick pony" by Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer, something has to be read into it: "But there are some new revenue models on the horizon. The most interesting is probably Google Apps, where we're already beginning to get some significant enterprise deals."

Will Google Apps really bring in that much enterprise revenue in the future? Unless Google gets quite a few large companies using it with a decent subscription model, I don't see Google Apps being anywhere near what Google pulls in with web search advertising. It probably does not need to be that way -- yet.

One thing is for sure -- Google is one of the better companies in recent memory that can say quite a lot about what it does and where it is going without spilling many beans on specific strategies.

Through internal development – and a variety of acquisitions – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has patched together an interesting suite of productivity applications. Now, of course, the company is moving towards monetization.

The suite includes Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Start Page (to create web sites), and Docs & Spreadsheets.

No doubt, this was widely anticipated, but Google has a lot of savvy in building suspense – so as to maximize PR value.

As for its latest offering, the focus is primarily for business users and the pricing is $50/user on an annual basis. This is actually fairly cheap. Keep in mind that salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) averages about $68/user on a monthly basis, albeit for a more robust system.

What is poised to happen when Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) releases the retail versions of Windows Vista and Office 2007 insofar as software piracy? There have been talks from Microsoft's most senior-level product and security officers on the specific safeguards that the world's largest software supplier will have in place to ensure that the newer software -- which combined pulls in the bulk of Microsoft's software -- will be as accessible to customers as possible without being easy to pirate, copy, mass-counterfeit -- what have you.

Hackers and software crackers have almost always had the seemingly-immediate capability to remove software and hardware anti-piracy protections from almost any piece of software imaginable, and almost as soon as the software shipped. In fact, the rate of undoing anti-piracy checks should make software makers spin in their offices. And, probably does to a large degree.

With license keys, activation checks and the newer "Windows Genuine Advantage" program, Microsoft has some formidable weapons to fend of the pirates of its software. But with Windows Vista and Office 2007 just about out on shiny retail shelves, the battle will once again heat up between Microsoft and, well, the rest of the world who wants to buy a single copy of either piece of software and install it wherever and whenever they please.