Google buys JotSpot, Microsoft is silent
Google bought Jotspot today to add to its Google Docs & Spreadsheets collection. The writing is on the wall. Google feels that it can compete with Microsoft by creating (or buying) free Web 2.0 oriented Office type programs and serving up advertisements on them. The question is whether something like Office Live is equivalent. Take Office Live for a test run to see what it’s like. Do you see easy to use, web-based, collaboration features?
Microsoft should be worried. While Office 11, Sharepoint and Office Live are strong products, they operate in a different space to Google Docs. A space which Microsoft should not be seceding to Google if it wants to be relevant in the web 2.0 world. It’s only a matter of time before Google moves up the value chain with an enterprise version of Google Docs that will directly compete with Microsoft Office. They did that with search, they can do that here as well.
If I were Steve Balmer or Ray Ozzie, I’d buy this company right away. The company’s products integrate with Sharepoint.
