RSSGates on Google
Since you want unbiased commentary, I thought it would be best if I put up a link to this eWeek article quoting Bill Gates talking about Google at this week's Sharepoint conference in Seattle. He says, basically, that they stink and don't know what they are doing and, ha ha ha, of course Microsoft has nothing to fear from them on the business collaboration front.
More importantly, and more generally, Gates implied that Google doesn't understand business needs and remains mired in a consumer-centric approach as a result of its core search business. I think that has more teeth. Google's offerings do commonly lack features that businesses look for, at least when they are first introduced. On the other hand, they do incorporate some other things that businesses look for which Microsoft's products often lack: aggressive pricing and ease of use. So maybe that's a wash.
I don't think that Gates, or anyone at Microsoft, really believes that "In terms of Google tools, the day they announced them was their best day, really," as Bill put it. They seem to be working far too hard at fighting off the implicit encroachment from Google in the business market, even if that encroachment hasn't truly begun yet. I think the danger to them is that, in fact, Google's products keep improving, at marginal cost to both the developer and the user, over time, and Microsoft's traditional design and release cycle is not going to be able to keep up with that process when it gets a full head of steam. Google's products are acceptable for business today; next week they could be superlative.
For more unbiased commentary, see this other eWeek article quoting Google's Scott Johnston, manager of the new Sites product, on Microsoft's Sharepoint.
