Google Docs & Spreadsheets & ...
With the Web 2.0 conference going on this week in San Francisco, we might have expected a significant announcement from Google, and they haven't disappointed. (BTW, why am I not off on that boondoggle, hmm?) Eric Schmidt announced a new addition to Google's growing suite of Web-based productivity products: presentations.
At the same time, Google has announced it acquired Tonic Systems, a company who's entire Web site has been yanked from the Internet and replaced with an FAQ on the acquisition. Cached versions of Tonic's Web site describe the company as offering "a library that provides a 100% Java API to read, create and manipulate PowerPoint presentations," which seems to be a positively frightening preview of what Google presentations might be like.
I'm a long time Java developer and a big fan of the language and I suppose time will tell whether Google intends to use this API client-side or server-side, but anyone who has ever used the Internet knows the horror of that dreaded coffee cup icon and the utterly ridiculous wait for the JRE to crank up.
Whether Google presentations makes use of Java applets or not, Eric Schmidt's assertion that Google presentations is not an attempt to compete with Microsoft's PowerPoint is untrue and Google's acquisition of Tonic Systems makes that clear.
At the same time, Google has announced it acquired Tonic Systems, a company who's entire Web site has been yanked from the Internet and replaced with an FAQ on the acquisition. Cached versions of Tonic's Web site describe the company as offering "a library that provides a 100% Java API to read, create and manipulate PowerPoint presentations," which seems to be a positively frightening preview of what Google presentations might be like.
I'm a long time Java developer and a big fan of the language and I suppose time will tell whether Google intends to use this API client-side or server-side, but anyone who has ever used the Internet knows the horror of that dreaded coffee cup icon and the utterly ridiculous wait for the JRE to crank up.
Whether Google presentations makes use of Java applets or not, Eric Schmidt's assertion that Google presentations is not an attempt to compete with Microsoft's PowerPoint is untrue and Google's acquisition of Tonic Systems makes that clear.