Global CIO: Enterprise Apps Not Among Products Google's REALLY Excited AboutGlobal CIO: Enterprise Apps Not Among Products Google's REALLY Excited About

Maybe the problem is that investors just don't care about Google's enterprise business. Not one of the equity analysts on the conference call asked about the enterprise business. Nevertheless, this was exactly the moment that Google leaders were trying to shape investor perception of the company, to show it's more than a text-based ad company.

The enterprise apps gets mentioned twice that I heard in the 58-minute call:

Around the 3:30 mark: Google's results were very strong in every major business, CFO Patrick Pichette said, including "search, display, and mobile, as well as apps enterprise."

Around the 52-minute mark: CEO Eric Schmidt was describing how Google's moving to more of a business unit structure, so it can make sure it's better tracking the amount of investment it makes to revenue potential: "the obvious big ones being search and ads and display and enterprise and that kind of stuff, [and] YouTube."

Every time Google's leaders pass on an opportunity like this to talk up enterprise apps alongside their other businesses, they leave open doubt about how deeply committed they are to the enterprise business. I've given up hope that one of Google's founders would embrace this huge opportunity. But on this call, Google leaders could've stuck their necks out, said the enterprise business is one of its vital emerging businesses, one that will help diversify its revenue, and one that investors should watch to assess its growth prospects. They chose not to.

Google Apps has brought some real excitement and real choice to e-mail and other collaboration apps. I hear it from CIOs. You see momentum in occasional Google Apps deal announcements. Google has brought innovative new features to its collaboration tools this year. Personally, I spent a good part of last week using Google Docs to collaborate with colleagues across the country on upcoming article ideas. My colleague Bob Evans just made the case for Google as the no. 5 most-influential IT vendor.

I like to see competition and want to believe in Google's commitment to its enterprise business. CIOs who have bet on Google Apps certainly want to keep believing. But dang, Google's leaders sure make it hard sometimes.

The Enterprise 2.0 conference in Santa Clara, Calif. is coming up: Nov. 8 to 11. Register here.

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