For all there is to like about Google's (GOOGL -0.96%) Apps alternative to Microsoft's (MSFT -1.43%) Office suite, Gmail compares poorly to Outlook when it comes to managing tasks and projects.

Gmail adherents will counter -- rightly -- that they've a choice of any number of third-party task managers, including Remember The Milk and Toodledo. Nevertheless, I find it weird that Gmail's relatively obtuse alternative is tucked away in a hidden tab. Ignoring this space has encouraged up-and-comers to seek gains from pairing task management and social collaboration tools.

Take Jive Software (NASDAQ: JIVE), which recently purchased team task manager Producteev1 for an undisclosed sum. Facebook (META -2.12%) co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and developer Justin Rosenstein have created a similar system called Asana2 while salesforce.com (CRM 0.66%) has Do.com. Why isn't Google taking this market more seriously? Find out more in the video below.