Google’s recently announced plans for a presentation tool for Google Apps have taken a major step-forward after confirming their acquisition of Zenter – a company which makes software for slideshow presentations. The announcement follows Google’s other major acquisition – that of Tonic Systems which also specialise on presentation software. The search giant say the presentation app should be released this summer
Google Engineering director Sam Schillace said the move had been prompted since presentation and sharing tools are becoming an increasing necessity for users.
These days, when you create a document – whether it’s a text document, a spreadsheet, or a presentation – you usually want to share it, collect feedback, or communicate about it in some way.
But what will Google’s presentation tool offer that others don’t? One thing it can really excel in is in offering community and sharing features. According to the Internet Marketing Monitor, this is why Google have acquired Zenter to focus on the frontend of the product whilst Tonic works on the backend. Zenter is particularly adept at letting users share their projects and incorporate content directly from the web, including Google Images.
To my mind, the most important thing is that Google make sure that this presentation tool integrates seamlessly with the rest of Google Apps for it to really take-off.
