Maybe they are going after companies with specific presentation features (eg. transitions, etc...)

In reference to the official google blog post...

<< when you create a document – whether it be a text document, spreadsheet >>

... even they call files documents, even though the app is called Docs & Spreadsheets. Sort out this inconsistancy, Google, and rename it to Google Docs. Preferably today :-D

I think, if anything it will become Google Documents. All the Google nav bar links to Google D&S have the text "Documents" now (some previously read "Docs").

As every entrepreneur in the IT world knows, it's easier (and cheaper) to buy companies just for the staff than to try to recruit your own. I suspect that's the reason Google buys up so many companies.

In reference to Mambo...

<<<<....even they call files documents, even though the app is called Docs & Spreadsheets. Sort out this inconsistency....>>>>>

While a spreadsheet technically might be a document, and even Google will agree to that as you pointed out, it is Google's best interest to call it Docs and Spreadsheets so people will know just by hearing the name or seeing the logo that they do spreadsheets also.

< < or can we have reason to believe Google is just removing competition (or clearing the field from acquisition candidates for larger competitors)? > >

Oh, don't even suggest it! If this is what Google were doing.. it would be almost...Microsoftian...in its tactics! :-)

AEF: Then it would be renamed everytime a new feature is added and it will end being called Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations & Wikis (for your Domain), which is, definitly, not a good name ;)

Oh, to own a company that Google wants to own. <cha-ching>

All these Google acquisitions remind me of one thing, the horrible movie Antitrust. In it the Bill Gates of the movie and his company monitor and basically steal the work of others to get their own product out on time. A collection of works from many different people all compiled into one and called its own. Yeah, unfortunately, that is the feeling I am getting when I think of Google these days and it is downright sickening. It seems a new acquisition surfaces each week and every time I see it the same sickening feeling comes back.

Why can we not allow these independent companies to function as they were instead of buying them up; is it a case of worry, fear of someone else acquiring first, or maybe it was the intention of the company itself?

In the arena of software development, if Google has all these top engineers, then can they not just develop a far superior product then anything that could be acquired, or is it a case of not wanting to reinvent the wheel?

As I end this I can’t help but see the word “Microsoft” flash before my eyes.

A lot of these companies want to be acquired. They set them selves up for a year or two, then sell to either Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, TimeWarner or News Corp.

If you look at a lot of Google's acquisitions. Most of them have no implemented method of monetinisation. They simple create a product that anyone can use for free (funding by Venture Capitalists).

Chris: Interesting concern. If anything, I'd think more 'Microsoft' if Google *wasn't* making lots of acquisitions. What's worse? Buying up people to incorporate the best bits of their software into Google's new releases, or just having Google's engineers copy / implement the best features they see other companies developing?

Google's pool of engineers, market share, and huge user base gives them a big advantage in competition with small companies. If I ran a small company that developed a web based PowerPoint app and heard that Google was releasing one of their own, I'd certainly hope they bought me out rather than just implement all of my best features themselves. At least if you're bought out you get paid! Not so much if Google's giving a clone of your product away for free (as per Netscape v Explorer).

How come Google has not cached zenter.com? Even similar links doesn't show anything.

When I posted the post, the Google cache actually showed the site. Now they've changed their robots.txt to what looks like Google's robots.txt, excluding a whole bunch of stuff (though not the homepage I believe)..