Cover Story: Google's Battle For The 'Collaborative Backbone'Cover Story: Google's Battle For The 'Collaborative Backbone'

Google has rewritten its Google Docs online word processing and spreadsheet applications, and our cover story looks at the huge bets Google's making.One is that people want to collaborate in real time online, and that they can live without an offline option. Another is that, by making it easier to move between Microsoft Office and Docs, Google can lure new users to the cloud. Third is that, by selling this package along with e-mail at one price, businesses will buy in. Google's new Docs is about more than which software you use to write proposals or build financial models. It's about the collaborative backbone--the platform you use to share that work. Microsoft Office is one of the all-time greatest software products. But talk with CIOs today, and you'll hear a lot more about SharePoint, since that's the collaborative backbone for sharing information inside companies. That's where the action is, and Google wants in. Find all our coverage of Google's enterprise strategy at information.com/news/google-docs, including: * Analysis of Google's strategy, based on interviews with Google execs and developers * Perspective from enterprise customers of Google applications * Comparisons with Microsoft's cloud strategy * Videos, including demos of the new Docs and Spreadsheets, a look inside Google's usability lab, and more. The Microsoft-Google rivalry is real. Microsoft's new Office and SharePoint versions hit next month. Stay tuned.

(A free PDF of the issue is here.)