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.

Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) M&A pursuit continues. The latest purchase is for Zenter, which provides PowerPoint-like presentations online. It's slick software.

Of course, there's lots of buzz that Google wants to take a big chunk of Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) highly lucrative franchise, Office.

But is that really the case?

I had a chance to interview Robert Hoffer, who is a managing director of Newforth Partners.

"There's no doubt that Google Docs wants to be the Microsoft application killer, but what Google is really buying when they purchase these firms is the talent. And that's the name of the game.

"It's not about just taking 20 year old legacy applications such as spreadsheets, word processors, and Powerpoint and putting these ancient apps into the browser. It's about adding unique features and functionality that take the usage of these apps to the next level - the level that being online makes uniquely possible, such as file sharing, group editing, publishing, notifications, revision tracking, document archiving, mashups, etc.

"Microsoft's approach - Microsoft Live - is going to be hard pressed in the consumer space to compete with Google, but Google is going to be hard pressed to compete in the enterprise space with Microsoft."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

At the buzz-filled Web 2.0 conference, Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) Eric Schmidt gave a presentation about, well, presentations.

Google is going to launch an online system to allow users to create PowerPoint-like slide shows. It will be part of the company's Docs & Spreadsheets suite.

Of course, Schmidt said he is not competing against Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) (as he always likes to say).

I had a chance to interview Anders Heie, who is the founder and president of KaDonk. His company develops applications for Microsoft's Project franchise. According to him:

"I think most people would agree that PowerPoint is the de-facto application for presentations, and one of the best programs Microsoft has (that, and Excel). If Google only provides online support for its new software, the issues are the same as for its other offerings: No network equals no work. I would imagine that Google could get good traction if the software supports imports/exports to PowerPoint, but I doubt it will take any significant market share away from Microsoft for quite some time. The great thing about Google's offerings is the built-in ability to share between anyone, which totally blows Microsoft out of the water. Google needs to catch up on features, and Microsoft needs to find a way to share as easily as Google."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

I began using PowerPoint, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)'s iconic presentation software, a good dozen years ago. I took to it like a duck to water, never (I thought) overusing the animation tools, eventually learning that axiom of all presentations: don't put too many words on each slide. I made countless presentations over the years, to pitch loans to other banks, to pitch deals to potential clients, to explain the 401(k) program to employees, to explain a product to PR agents, to beg for money from venture capital firms. I'm a little in love with PowerPoint. Let's be honest.

Yet PowerPoint is roundly hated by the world, says Jared Sandberg in the Wall Street Journal today. Naturally, despite this abhorrence, it's roundly used 'round the world. One expert he quotes says PowerPoint presentations cost companies $252 million each day in wasted time. The anecdotal PowerPoint-haters he quotes say it's "soul-sapping," a "crutch," "it stinks."

Come on guys! It's not that bad. And if it is: it's hardly the fault of the program.

I think it's meetings that suck. Not all meetings, mind you, but the ones for which overly-animated PowerPoint presentations are prepared. I think it's presenters who suck. Not all presenters, of course, but the ones who use PowerPoint as an overly-wordy crutch. I think it's the state of public discourse that sucks; so many people today don't properly prepare really compelling things to say to one another. It's writing that sucks; so few people today are properly trained in how to craft a few sentences to make them sing around their sparse and lovely bullet points.

Don't hate the game, Jared! Hate the players. And Microsoft's laughing at both of us, all the way to its cash position on its prodigious balance sheet. I wonder how much Microsoft makes each day in this love-hate relationship?

Looks like Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is sparing no expense -- literally -- in bringing its free Google Spreadsheet and recently-acquired Writely word processing software to all customers who want both products. Both are free of charge, of course. The new "Google Docs & Spreadsheets" program is an extension of the web-based spreadsheet and word processing access Google already provides for free on the web. The new access for the combined word processing and spreadsheet is available here, and a Google account must be created or used.

Does this up the ante on Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) regarding its billion-dollar Office software franchise? Well, that's been said ever since Google purchased privately-help Writely earlier this year and later introduced the Google Spreadsheets program to all web users. My guess is that most Microsoft Office users use Powerpoint, Word and Excel more than any other piece of the Microsoft Office productivity package, so Google has two of those bases covered here -- and all you need is a web browser and Internet connection.

It's true that the intricate capabilities of Microsoft Office are far ahead of the relatively simple capabilities that Google's offerings allow, but for millions, what Google offers is enough and will suit then just fine. So, is this another stab at Microsoft by Google? You could say that, but I actually think it's an extension of the stab from earlier this year, and we'll see how Google progresses here. If the Internet search giant can create or buy a web-based presentation tool that emulates Microsoft Powerpoint, then things will really start to take shape.