Google Sites App Again Targets Microsoft Office

Google hopes to make another dent in Microsoft’s productivity empire with a new application: Google Sites. The program lets workgroups create multimedia web content, and rivals Microsoft’s $1-billion-a-year SharePoint, the New York Times reports. It joins Google apps for email, word processing, and more in an assault on MS Office—and unlike Office, Google’s programs are free.

“It’s our biggest launch since Apps itself launched,” said a Google VP. But it faces some hurdles. Sites won’t require installation, but some businesses may not like having materials on an external server. And Sites lacks some of SharePoint’s functionality. “There is a lot that Google still has to prove in terms of being a viable enterprise vendor,” said an analyst. (More Google Apps stories.)