Web Marketing Strategy Update

As I mentioned at the end of my previous post, [Google & Sun Microsystems Cross-Promotional Partnership->], there are now several web-based competitors to Microsoft Office applications.

One I’ve been hearing quite lot about recently is ThinkFree Online.

ThinkFree Office is a platform independent suite of Microsoft Office compatible-applications in Java, similar to Sun’s OpenOffice.

The software is designed to look, feel and behave like Microsoft Office, but unlike OpenOffice, it’s not free. It’s much cheaper than Microsoft Office though, and can be hosted on intranets, where the software is launched from the server to the user’s desktop via a web browser.

With ThinkFree Online, ThinkFree have taken this idea a step further and now offer a free web-based version of ThinkFree Office.

According to the site, users are able to access:

• Write, ThinkFree’s word processing application, which uses Microsoft Word’s .doc file format. Write has most of Word’s features, and even retains the user interface that Word users are comfortable with.
• Show, a powerful application for creating presentations that is highly compatible with Microsoft Powerpoint. Powerpoint users will feel right at home with Show’s robust feature set, which includes graphical tools, dozens of animations and transitions, and of course use of the .ppt file format.

Fresh on the heels of news that Google has submittied a plan to provide free Wi-Fi to all of San Francisco (apparently viewed as a test-ground by Google), is the announcement that Google will promote Sun Microsystems’ OpenOffice and its Java software platform.

Google will start distributing Java with its search toolbar, enabling the use of OpenOffice, a free open-source multi-platform office tools suite that competes with Microsoft Office.

In return, Sun will include the Google toolbar as a download option with its Java software, with Google paying Sun for each download containing the toolbar.

Google will also help promote and improve both OpenOffice and Solaris, Sun’s open-source operating system — which according to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Google engineers already contribute to.

That’s less surprising once you know the Google CEO previously worked at Sun helping to develop Java and Solaris, and Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim was an early investor in Google.

Obviously, it’s too early to draw conclusions, but with Google’s brand and massive user base — which Sun will probably add to — in time the partnership (which is set to run for several years) could have a significant impact on Microsoft.