Google's partnership with Sun draws skeptical analysis

Google may be a media darling flush with cash, but any attempt on its part to muscle into productivity and collaborative applications will find the company in an underdog role it might not be ready to handle, according to IT professionals and other industry experts.

Google last week laid out what many saw as an underwhelming partnership deal with Sun to distribute its toolbar with Sun's Java Runtime Environment software - a move that underscored Google's focus on finding more eyeballs to look at its advertising. The Sun partnership was seen as a dud because it came after days of red-hot hype suggesting that Google would add to its mail and instant-messaging services and begin offering over the Web Sun's StarOffice or open source OpenOffice.

Critics were quick to point out that both productivity suites are not designed for Web-based but rather client-based deployment, just like Microsoft Office, which was being portrayed as the target of Google's gambit.

"Could Google offer more of a Web-based technology built around OpenOffice technology? Yes it could," says Chris LeTocq, an analyst with Guernsey Research. "What I am saying is that there is a lot of great intellectual property associated with OpenOffice and Google has an opportunity using OpenOffice to redefine what desktop productivity means."

LeTocq says for a lot of users all they need in terms of a rich-text editor is something that works with their e-mail. "Do I see Google distributing OpenOffice or StarOffice as is? I don't see that happening," he says.

LeTocq says services-based computing - whether referred to as Web 2.0, Web services or component software - is a natural for Google to exploit using the underlying technology of OpenOffice. That technology includes text editing and spreadsheets used as features within other applications, such as a rich-text editor within e-mail.

That possibility was echoed in other reactions to the Google-Sun partnership. Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund wrote in a research note: "We suspect both Yahoo and Google will want to extend their e-mail products to look a lot richer and more like Microsoft Outlook (adding calendar and contact management to e-mail) and may decide to throw in spreadsheet and word processing capabilities while they are at it to be more competitive with Office."

A Google spokesman refused to comment on any future intentions even as Yahoo last week bought Upcoming.org for its calendaring technology.

"Google is going to see what they can do," says Bruce Elgort, the manager of e-commerce for a large manufacturer he did not want to be named. "But what they have now is tons of resources and brand recognition. It could be a flop just like Netscape's [foray into collaboration]. It could go either way."

Elgort says Google can use Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) to create the next Excel or a new Word. AJAX is a set of programming controls that lets users create Web-based applications that behave like desktop software. Google has exploited AJAX for some of its most eye-popping services such as Gmail and Google Maps.

"But the question is, will the enterprise adopt it?" Elgort asks. "It would take years and years for Google to become a vendor of enterprise-class software."