Google to add a new member to its office suite

First came Gmail, then Google Docs and Spreadsheets, now Google is adding Presentations (a PowerPoint like program with extra features) to its rapidly growing mix of online applications.

According to a blog post made by Sam Schillace, Google’s Engineering Director, “it just made sense to add presentations to the mix; after all, when you create slides, you’re almost always going to share them. Now students, writers, teachers, organizers, and, well, just about everyone who uses a computer can look forward to having real-time, web-based collaboration across even more common business document formats.”

To get Presentations up and running Google acquired Tonic Systems which call themselves “Java PowerPoint Specialists”. Sam writes that, “they have some great technology for presentation creation and document conversion, and it will be a great addition as we add presentation sharing and collaboration capabilities to Google Docs & Spreadsheets.”.

Tonic Systems is based in Melbourne, Australia and San Francisco. Their website states that they have been bought by Google and answers a few common questions such as, “How much did Google pay?” and “What are the terms of the acquisitions? Has it closed yet?”.

The answer to both questions is an informative “The terms of the acquisition are confidential and the deal is officially closed”.

Another question asks, “What are you going to be doing at Google?”. The answer is, “We can’t share anything publicly…” but we can take a good guess here.

Sam Schillace writes that Google Presentations will go live this summer (or winter if you live in OZ-land). Google Presentations will compete against ThinkFree Show, Zoho Show, and online presentation software.

Source: APC Magazine