Google Inc.'s acquisition of Zenter Inc. for an undisclosed amount is exciting because it completes the company's suite of online productivity programs. With Zenter's slide-making capabilities and assets from an earlier acquisition, Google can offer a program that competes directly with Microsoft Corp.'s PowerPoint. In 2006, Google bought Upstartle LLC, the makers of word-processing software, Writely, which underlies Google Documents, and earlier this year it purchased Tonic Systems Inc., which also helps produce online slide shows.

Google's vision has long been to remove both data and software programs from the desktop PC and keep them in the Internet "cloud," where they can be accessed any place there's a connection to the net. The idea is great; however, things sometimes get lost in the shuffle. Google has experienced problems with keeping its Gmail e-mail program running, and some users have complained of lost data. That may be irritating but ultimately acceptable to consumers, yet enterprise customers won't be so forgiving when their presentations fail to load because their data cloud has inexplicably evaporated.

While the Google suite is complete now, Microsoft Office is still here to stay. —Stacey Higginbotham

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