Google Unveils “Presentations”

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Google upgraded its Google Docs online suite to include Presentations, an online presentation component that does try to be a little like Microsoft PowerPoint. OK, it tries to be a lot like PowerPoint, and that does not surprise us. But the question here is whether Google Presentations succeeds or not.

We’ll admit the product is snappy, intuitive, and easy to use. It works quite like a desktop application, but it does have more than a few rough edges that seem to be asking for forgiveness, since Google calls this a beta.

There are fifteen templates that look so much like PowerPoint templates from a decade ago—and there’s essential support for text and graphics. You can also import PowerPoint files.

There are no transitions, animation, or charting. That’s a whole lot missing, and we could live with that, but what were the folks at Google doing when they decided to drop out the concept of a presentation outline? Anyone who’s familiar with PowerPoint knows that the non-existence of an outline in a PowerPoint presentation can be a big reason for useless PowerPoints that are more well known to further death by PowerPoint. And that’s twice as bad to know that Google left out the outline.

Where Presentations does score over PowerPoint is in its collaborative tools. And yes, we’re sure that Google will fine-tune Presentations in the future.

Ultimately, presentation creators need to present their creations. Probably, Google’s acquisition of Tonic Systems will help in bringing out a free presentation viewer for Google Presentations. And that may be a turning point in the presentations arena.