Google Gets Its Point Across

No, Virginia, Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) new Google Presents software won't make Christmas gifts appear magically under your tree this year. Big G is talking about presentations -- shiny, Web-based, multimedia slides used in meeting presentations and classroom lectures. Google Presents is being added to Google Docs, the search-engine giant's suite of programs that includes word processing, calendar, and spreadsheet applications.

What's that, Virginia? You say that Google Docs is sounding more and more like Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Office suite of bundled apps? That this new program is a lot like Microsoft's PowerPoint?

My, you're getting pretty darn smart, Virginia. It kind of makes me not want to burst your bubble on that Santa Claus thing.

Besides, watching Google go after just about everything that Microsoft has or covets, the better holiday-classic metaphors can probably be found within the pages of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Google is downplaying the competitive threat of Google Presents. Its spec sheet supposedly doesn't pack the functionality that PowerPoint users expect. Sure. Remember when Google kept saying that its Checkout program wasn't going to compete with eBay's (Nasdaq: EBAY) PayPal service? These days, we see Checkout undercutting PayPal to land online merchants while sweetening the deal with $10 discounts for individuals.

There was a time when Google was more than happy promoting third-party software like the Firefox browser or Sun Microsystems' (Nasdaq: SUNW) productivity programs. It is far more hands-on these days.

Maybe Google Presents will be no big deal. Tethering software to Internet connectivity has its pros and cons. However, it would be naive to think that Google isn't targeting PowerPoint this time. Anyone who doesn't pick up on that hasn't seen the next slide in Google's presentation. You know, the one about its next step in global domination.

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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is a Googleholic. Is there a cure? He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.