Google is working hard to fight Microsoft on several fronts. Google is the clear leader the search market in America, but Microsoft is working hard to gain on Google in search with Bing. At the same time, Google is putting pressure on Microsoft in the smartphone market with the popular Android OS and Google is also competing against Microsoft in productivity software with its Google Apps.
EWeek reports that 2010 will be a big year for Google and its cloud offerings like Google Apps, Google Wave, and Google Voice. Google's Enterprise president Dave Girouard has stated that the search giant will add many features to Google Apps this year and roll Google Voice out for business users. Google will reportedly add as many as 200 new features to Google Apps in 2010.
Right now Google boasts more than 2 million business users for its Google apps, Gmail, and other software. Girouard told eWeek, "There will be a steady stream of new capabilities brought to the cloud [in 2010]."
One of the biggest launches form Google in 2010 will be the roll out of Google Voice to businesses. GV has over 1.4 million users in America right now that get calls form mobile, home, and business numbers to one device. The app lacks some features currently that users want to see, such as VoIP. However, Google plans to add VoIP to Google Voice and will use technology purchased with the firm Gizmo5 to add the functionality.
Google Voice for Businesses will let Google fight IBM and Microsoft in the unified communications and collaboration environment. Girouard also says that new mobile technologies coming this year from Google will help drive adoption of Google Apps and other cloud offerings from Google. He specifically cites the Chrome OS and web browser.
Girouard adds, "We are really focusing on the capability to deliver a better and better experience to end users across all applications on mobile devices and also through our Chrome browser and eventually Chrome PS. We're not just a few apps here; we're working on the entire stack."Google will also unveil its Wave collaboration environment to all users and companies that want to use it this year. Currently, Wave is only available by invite and has about a million users. Wave lets users do several things including IM, collaborating on documents, and it also supports social networking.
Source: DailyTech
