Google Docs has today launched an amazing new translation tool, now you can share Google Docs between 42 different languages and automatically translate the content.
Google Documents has fast become the world’s leading online document sharing solution, the simple and familiar to use service offers a whole suite of tools for the consumer and business user.
Google have integrated there Google Translates technology into the Google Docs. In the Tools Menu you can now select “translate document”, you will then be asked to choose a language. Not only will this service translate your existing document it will also create a new translated version which will be saved as a new document. This gives you the versatility to create multiple saved versions of the same document in different languages.
Google has acknowledged that the format and layout of translated documents will remain the same, only the text will change. Google is also rumoured to be in the process of updating the user interface of Google Docs to compete with Microsoft Office’s new web based productivity suite.
As part of a new drive to promote Google Apps, Google has commenced a nationwide billboard campaign promoting the products.
The new campaign is designed to promote Google’s cloud application services including Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs. The main target of the campaign is toward the business community, Google is promoting itself as a smarter safer and more cost effective method of managing email servers and internal networks. Google applications can be accessed from any location, can be shared by any number of users and to top it all off the service is free.
“Here at Google, we have a term for the moment a company realizes there’s a better way and goes for it: “going Google.” Over 1.75 million businesses, schools and organizations have gone Google — including Motorola, University of Notre Dame, the Mercy Corps and many more — and each day, 3,000 more organizations join them. We want every organization to understand the benefits of going Google, so today we’re telling the story in a new way. We’re kicking off a series of outdoor billboards in four cities — Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco — that will change every weekday for the next four weeks. The billboards tell the story of an anonymous IT manager who gets so fed up with the typical IT status quo that his company eventually — you guessed it — goes Google.” Taken from the official Google Blog.
Microsoft Office 2010 has been released for its first stage of testing, the new product includes a suit of web based tools, has Google rattled Microsoft’s gold plated cage?
Microsoft Office is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the Office software world, but there’s a new kid in town, a lightweight, fast punching, crowd pleasing challenger, Google Docs, who is currently running circles around Microsoft office in an online arena. Office needs to shape up and adapt to the changing needs of the consumer and Microsoft hope that Office 2010 is the product to maintain their market leading position.
Microsoft office has always been a paid-for software application, the move into an online environment will seem a little alien to Microsoft especially with Google Doc’s being free to use. As yet little information has been released about potential online pricing but it is hoped that Microsoft will offer the product for free. If we were to look at existing Microsoft charges online, we will see that a $3 per month charge will allow you to use the Desktop Workers suite of tools and a $15 per month charge will get you access to Exchange and Sharepoint services. With this in mind a potential charge could be extremely low or based on a small annual fee.
Google recently announced the removal of the Beta version of Google Docs and the up and coming launch of Google Docs for business, a new suite of online business tools. The removal of the Beta label will allow more business users to use the product and trust in a completed version of the software. Google Docs for business is a direct challenge to the up and coming Microsoft Office 2010 suite of tools and it is very evident that Microsoft is taking this challenge very seriously. Google want to recruit more business users but it is unclear as to whether the business version of Google Docs will be free-to-use or a charged for service. Google decision on pricing will be very influential and will set a market standard, but will Microsoft feel they need to compete or will they rely on the long established brand to add value to their product?
There are interesting times ahead and the competition between Microsoft and Google can only add value to both products, offering more assessable online tools which will definitely improve the user’s productivity and user experience.
Google is to remove the beta logo from many of its key services including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Talk and Google Video for business. Google wants to attract more business users to its applications and is reported to be in the process of creating a business suite of communications tools which will be available for download.
Although this might not seem like a big deal as most users will only see the removal of the beta label from the service logo, in order to attract more business users Google’s Applications need to be seen as fully developed, trusted and working products in order to be accepted by the business community.
We’ve come to appreciate that the beta tag just doesn’t fit for large enterprises that aren’t keen to run their business on software that sounds like it’s still in the trial phase,” wrote Rajen Sheth, senior product manager at Google Apps in a recent Blog post.
“No business is going to rely on a ‘beta’ service for something as important as e-mail,” says Matt Cain, lead e-mail analyst with market research firm Gartner. But, he adds, “just by lifting the beta label does not guarantee Google success”.
Only recently Google announced the forthcoming launch of Google Wave, a new communication based product which will allow multiple channels of communication to be accessed in one, real time online environment. Is Google’s current move to attract the business community part of a bigger strategy which involves Google Wave?
Cloud based communication is definitely the next big thing and Google Wave will offer a platform which will directly integrate into the cloud. It’s safe to say that there are some very exciting big changes ahead of us, Google will be taking on the likes of Microsoft with over 70% of the communication software marketplace, if they expect to compete Google will have to pull something pretty special out of the hat.
