• The New York Times, Monday, November 21, 2011 12:22 PM

What impact are Google’s cloud-based business apps having on Microsoft’s Office division? Anecdotes abound about offices embracing Google over Microsoft, but, as The New York Times explains, “more than 4 1/2 years after Google Apps for business made its debut, the question remains how much of a dent Google is making in Microsoft’s business.” Microsoft claims to barely notice a change to its bottom-line. Google, however, insists that its business services are gaining steam.

“Possibly more important to Google is the way that Apps helps Google build social networks inside business,” according to The Times. “If successful, it would be a threat to Microsoft’s biggest division and would create another inroad in its struggle with Facebook to dominate users’ online lives.” Says David Girouard, head Google’s Apps business: “You need to have a social system [in the workplace], where a guy can introduce an idea about a new supplier, and he gets input from a lot of people quickly.”

Yet, why aren’t more big businesses signing up for Google Apps? “Most likely,” The Times surmises, “because some people do not entirely trust a cloud-based service, they like Microsoft or do not want to force employees to learn a new system.”

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