Bamboozle Update

Google's strategy to defend against the Microsoft search threat is to attack Microsoft Office. This diverts Microsoft resources to defending Office, resources which might otherwise go to its search offerings. The Google Bamboozlers attack the Office cash cow with free offerings at very low cost to Google.

This attack advanced this week as Google announced Google Apps for Your Domain (memo to Google Marketing: needs catchy name; ignore Seinfeld fans voting for MOYD). This offering bundles Google Mail, Google Talk, Google Calendar and Google Page Creator into a suite of online applications that can be added to a web domain. The base offering is free, aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, non-profits and government agencies.

Mail, Talk and Calendar are a direct attack on Outlook and its Exchange infrastructure. Page Creator can be viewed as a poor man's substitute for PowerPoint. Expect to see Writely (Google's word processor) and Google Spreadsheets added in the future. Voila, Google Office begins to emerge. Take that, Office Live! How will you compete with free, Microsoft?

For more on Google's strategy to contain Microsoft, see Google Bamboozles Microsoft.

Copyright © 2006 Philip Bookman

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