After Zoho, Google. Now we’re talking: System Status Dashboard, Quota Details Page, and a Billing Sneak Preview. These quotas and billings make me think Google must have hired someone who used to work in the mainframe business at IBM. There’s a pretty decent roadmap and feature release log too.
Someone knows what they’re doing in this Google department. If they manage to stay aligned with Salesforce.com, the Google Apps/Force.com combo could really threaten Microsoft and Oracle a few years from now.
Google Apps + App Engine + Gears + Chrome + Native Client + network investments, they’re not toying around. There’s a deliberate web application strategy at work here with more chances to succeed than Netscape ever had in the 90′s. This is a much, much better direction for Google than weak wiki-based offerings or pondering whether to buy Digg.com. I’m starting to be excited again by a refocused Google that seems to gain from the pressure brought by the recession. It helps that Yahoo and Microsoft have been more inept at search marketing than I thought was possible, but Google is starting to show fresh vision and good execution outside of Adwords.