The release of Google Apps triggered an interesting discussion that is going on in the blogosphere these days. The topic of debate is whether online office tools can effectively compete with MS Office. Honestly? I was bothered with the discussion being focused on that axis from it’s beginning. I just don’t think such a narrow perspective really tells the story.

I was happy to read Chris Anderson’s recent entry at The Long Tail. Chris argues that it’s not about “desktop apps vs. web apps”, but about embedding office functionality in web services. Or in his words:

What might those things be? I think we have a hint in the spread of embedded video, courtesy of YouTube. The ability to easily embed into any blog page a full-featured videoplayer dedicated to a single video is a large part of YouTube’s success. It doesn’t require you to go elsewhere or download anything–it just works.
Now imagine the same model working for data. Rather than me posting static jpeg charts and links to Excel spreadsheet files, what if I could post data the way I post videos: as an embedded mini-app that simply displays the data in a useful way, allowing readers to manipulate or copy it at will? This would be a little like what Ray Ozzie (Microsoft’s Gates V2.0) calls “Live Clipboard”, which is a proposed way to copy and paste code, structured data and even functionality from website to website, just as we currently do with plain text.

That’s what I want. Not an online spreadsheet that simply replicates what Excel already does perfectly well on my laptop, but small spreadsheet elements that I can paste into a blog post in the form of a specific data set or graph.

Embedding web apps? Wow! This can take collaboration to a whole new territory. This is also where the web offers a built in and sustainable advantage. Zoho, the best creator of online office apps in my opinion, are already educating their users on how to embed Zoho Show Presentations. Or in their words:

A cool feature added in recent Zoho Show update is the ability to embed presentations anywhere on the web. This can be powerful and there is nothing like it (based on my limited knowledge) on the web today that makes this functionality possible - unless you create and save your presentation as flash object.

Anil Dash presents a very educated point of view which is quoted by Chris Anderson as well as by ZDNet:

Google Apps for Your Domain is not a competitor to Microsoft Office. There’s simply no other way to put it. There will undoubtedly be lots of breathless press or Web 2.0 hype about how this is Google’s shot across the bow of the Office juggernaut, and this just plain isn’t true. Feel free to poke someone in the eye if they say this version represents a competitor to Office.

Read his post.

Speaking of ZDNet, here is a summary of interesting opinions by leading analysts, such as Anil Dash, Kent Newsome, Nick Carr and Scott Karp - all on this very subject. A recommended read for the scene follower.

The bottom line? Yes, Google and MSFT are rivals, but their primary battle ground is not MS Office vs. Google Apps. Embedding web objects is where the internet offers a huge platform that desktops can’t. MSFT will not just watch, of course, and will demonstrate that through Office Live! As far as embedding objects in internet pages goes, however, it’s MSFT that is expected to play catch. If you ask Anil, MSFT doesn’t really care for MS Office users beyond their 500 enterprise customers. If you ask me, I find it hard to believe they really don’t.