Google Introduces Presentation Application

Google took the wraps off its online presentation software on Monday night, rounding out its online office suite which now matches Microsoft Office in functionality.

The company said the application is very much still in its early stages, thus much of the functionality is quite basic. However, it did say it plans to add new features in the coming months. "Presently" is available immediately in 25 languages.

Google's suite of office applications has also gotten a new shorter name, Google Docs, as the old name only promoted its document and spreadsheet features. With the addition of presentations, the old nomenclature wouldn't have worked.

Like Documents and Spreadsheets, the presentation files are also kept online and accessible from any computer. Several people may edit the same presentation at the same time, and the software can import presentations from software like Powerpoint for use with Google's application.

Presently uses other Google Apps features to make presenting interactive. "When it's time to present, participants can simply click a link to follow along as the presenter takes the audience through the slideshow," software engineer Attila Bodis said. "Participants are connected through Google Talk and can chat about the presentation as they're watching."

News of Presently first came in April when the company unveiled the product at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. During a demonstration there, CEO Eric Schmidt revealed that the presentation had been created with the new service.

Much of the backend of the product is based on technology that it acquired through its buy of Tonic Systems.

"Is Presently the Microsoft killer many are hoping it will be? Perhaps not yet, because Google still has work to do in breaking into the corporate marketplace," Duncan Riley wrote for TechCrunch. "For the rest of us, for all bar perhaps intensive presentations, Presently makes a great PowerPoint compatible tool, and at $0 it comes at the best price of all: free."