As we reported in April, Google have been working on their own answer to Microsoft Powerpoint and according to The Inquirer, ‘Presently’ as it is known, will be launched any day now.
Much of Presently is thought to be based on code patented by Zenter and Tonic Systems that Google acquired earlier this year. The news that Presently is about to launch coincides with the recent announcement that corporate consulting giants Capgemini will be promoting Google Apps to which Presently is being added just in time. The addition of Presently means that Google will finally have a web based office suite that can now be said to be as comprehensive as Microsoft Office.
The question remains though whether the future lies in web based office applications as pioneered by Google or desktop reliables such as Microsoft Office. I prefer Google Apps because you can share and collaborate on documents much more easily and I probably trust Google’s servers to store my data more securely than my own hard drive. However, it is doubtful that Presently will feature all the high-end features of Powerpoint in the same way as Google Docs don’t compare with advanced features in Word and Excel.
