Google & On Demand Software

Recently found an interesting take on the direction software might take in the future. Certainly it seems that Google, our recently diversifying search engine, is voting on the side of a "web-based experience" of computer use compared to Microsoft's proprietary Desktop Software as discussed in this Forbes article talking about the new Google Pack:

Google, Microsoft Head-To-Head - Forbes.com: "'These are all of the tools that someone would need to basically enable a purely Web-based computer experience, rather than focusing on the [operating system],' says Charles King, principal with Pund-IT Research, a tech consultancy. "

With a "web-based experience" being the approach that is apparent in the selection and presentation of tools in the pack, it is not too distant a stretch to think of Google being interested at some stage in a web-based experience when applying its software in a corporate setting. Certainly with Google's predisposition to an agnosticism towards operating systems, it would be thinkable that Google may be interested in teaming up with a company like NetSuite.

Now this is not to say that anything like this would ever happen, but let us say, it is in keeping with their approach to be aiming towards something like NetSuite. Of course they could include in their pack an Open Source CRM package, or an Open Source ERP system and this is likely a way to go -- similarly in the way it has supported the Open Source "Firefox" instead of the proprietary "Opera".

However, I am not the only one talking about the possibility of Google taking such a position. See also where Steffan Hughes says something similar:

Screedz - Journal - When is Google Going to Run Your Business Software?: "It would not surprise me if at some stage in the new few months Google offered NetSuite an offer to purchase. It all fits. Google wants to organize the world's information and I could not think of a company better suited to be a potential Google company. SO what do you think? Am I stark raving mad? Or is it that Google is starting to look so much like Microsoft we are making some wild assumptions about how much it is going to look like Microsoft?"

So where does Google go from here? Is it going to be the darling company that everyone has made it to be for very much longer? What I do know is that anyone in a Fast Company needs to be watching Google and identifying where their business is headed. Take a wrong move and you might find yourself in opposition to Google which could mean the end of your company rather than the end of Google. Google is the new monolith to watch on the horizon.