Google Vice President: “We haven't started fighting yet”

Google vice president Dave Girouard (Dave Girouard) said that his company has not yet begun to compete with Microsoft seriously.

In 2007, Google plans to more closely address the issue of services for business, InternetNews writes . “We are preparing to seriously engage in business-oriented projects by creating paid products that are distributed under license and by subscription,” says Dave Zhirouard, who, in addition to his vice president, also holds the position of head of Google’s corporate solutions department. In the development of this line of business, he says, the company will be based on the developments that are now used by Internet users "for entertainment".

Dave Girouard, unlike other representatives of Google, is not trying to refute the fact that his company wants to press Microsoft in the field of business applications. Moreover, he notes that next year his unit will actively work on this. “We are not going to drive Microsoft out of local computers, we just want to give users the opportunity to choose,” says Girouard. This year, Google simply did not start the fight - but in 2007, the company is preparing to "strike back."
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In particular, the project Google Docs & Spreadsheets next year will seriously add functionality. This, apparently, will contribute to the emergence in its team of the creators of the iRows - Israeli spreadsheet service, bought by Google in November .

The Google Talk messenger will also be developed: it will become a full-fledged VoIP client and its users will be able to call ordinary phones.

Dave Zhirouar also promises that his company will actively work to ensure that its customers can access information even without an Internet connection. These opportunities can be expected, most likely, in Google Docs, as well as in the new platform, which will be created on the basis of the JotSpot service acquired this fall .

Forrester agency analyst Charlene Li (Charlene Li) predicts that Google will certainly launch a search for audio files. “They will not stop searching by what is displayed on the screens of our monitors,” she says. In this case, it is not only music files that are meant: we are talking about podcasts, and even those voice calls that will be made using Google Talk.

Gartner agency analyst Whit Andrews (Whit Andrews) notes the high commercial potential of the “geo-services” of Google Maps and Google Earth . And Blogger can be introduced to small businesses as a platform for managing content and creating corporate blogs (both public and internal). Similarly promising in commercial terms and video hosting - Google Video and YouTube .

The only problem, says Andrews, is that Google, despite such a massive presence in many areas, cannot yet occupy a leading position in all of them. The main competitor for this company in the field of corporate solutions - without a doubt, Microsoft. And the struggle has to be very difficult, because Bill Gates’s company is very active in all these areas, and this is not the first year. “Google will try to win by integrating its services,” the analyst concludes.