Businesses are inherently about people and relationships: social networks and sharing to aid growth of online business apps ?
What's happening at Journal Communications is one small win for Google and its cloud computing challenge to Microsoft's lucrative Office division, maker of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. But more than 4 1/2 years after Google Apps for business made its debut, the question remains how much of a dent Google is making in Microsoft's business.
Microsoft says Google's efforts are hardly noticeable. But Google executives say that more and bigger companies are signing up for the cloud service.
Possibly more important to Google is the way that Apps helps Google build social networks inside business. If successful, it would be a threat to Microsoft's biggest division and would create another inroad in its struggle with Facebook to dominate users' online lives.
"Businesses are inherently about people and relationships," said David Girouard, who runs Google's Apps business. Predictable things, like figuring out the supplies needed for manufacture, were "not the minimum to play," he said. "You need to have a social system, where a guy can introduce an idea about a new supplier, and he gets input from a lot of people quickly."
TECHNOLOGY
Mixed Results as Google Enters Microsoft's Turf
By QUENTIN HARDY
Published: November 20, 2011
Google has lured some small businesses away from Microsoft Office by offering similar features at lower cost. But big companies have been harder to land.