Eric Schmidt announced today that Google will be introducing a product as part of Google Docs that will be comparable in some respects to Microsoft’s PowerPoint. While Eric claims that these products are not intended to compete with Microsoft’s Office suite it is clear that they are gaining ground by building free applications that provide a significant number of features in common with Google. Personally I feel that until a corporation can feel these applications are secure and easily implement them through out an enterprise that these applications will remain the domain of personal users and small businesses. These applications are perfect for smaller businesses and personal use as they offer cross compatibility with main stream applications but add the feature of collaboration a tool that our increasingly mobile society demands.

Eric also addressed issues of Google’s lawsuit with Viacom and their proposed acquisition of DoubleClick. Several people brought up the fact that Google’s free applications pack includes a tool that deletes DoubleClick cookies. Eric stated that they like this application and they intend to keep it.

I worry that as Google continues to dominate the online sector that we may become too dependent on them. Just as Microsoft has dominated the desktop OS market, Google appears headed to domination of the online market. Recently Google has been acquiring new companies with visionary online applications just as Microsoft does. Is this the end of internal innovation for larger companies?