Google going after PowerPoint?

Google is adding a feature to its Docs & Spreadsheets web-hosted software that will enable people to create presentations and slide shows, said Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.

Speaking at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, Schmidt gave a short presentation made using the new feature, which he said would be launched soon. He offered no specific timeframe. "It's a way of doing presentations," he said in a keynote address. "Collaboration is a killer app for how communities work."

Asked by author and blogger John Battelle if Google's enhanced Docs & Spreadsheets would compete with Microsoft Office, Schmidt said: "We don't think so. It doesn't have all the functionality, nor is it intended to have the functionality of products like Microsoft Office."

Rumours of a Google 'PowerPoint killer' have been circulating for months.

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Google has been releasing more and more productivity applications as free, online services, starting with Gmail in 2004. Last year, Google merged its Documents and Spreadsheets products. Despite Google executives' claims that the company is not competing with Microsoft, industry insiders, including Battelle, say by offering free online versions of fee-based Microsoft desktop software, Google is targeting Microsoft's cash-cow. And Microsoft's response - Windows Live - has not exactly paid off.

Battelle also asked Schmidt about Google's proposed $3.1bn acquisition of online display ad company DoubleClick. Google co-founder Sergey Brin used to deride DoubleClick ads as "gaudy", and not targeted, and asserted Google would never offer "punch-the-monkey"-type ads, Battelle said. "What's changed in three years?" he asked Schmidt.

Schmidt said: "DoubleClick has changed." Their ads are now more targeted and they have better tools for advertisers and publishers, he added.

Battelle had other questions related to the merger: will Google spin out DoubleClick's Performics unit, which focuses on search optimisation? The answer: "we don't know yet". And what does Google plan to do with the third-party application created for the Google Pack software suite that deletes DoubleClick cookies? Schmidt said: "We actually think it's a pretty good application so we'll figure it out."

Asked to comment on calls by AT&T and Microsoft for regulators to scrutinise the Google-DoubleClick merger for antitrust issues, Schmidt said: "They're wrong... It's false... Advertising is about a trillion dollar business and this is one per cent of that."

Asked about the Viacom lawsuit from March alleging Google's YouTube hosts pirated material, Schmidt said Google complied with the copyrighted content take-down orders. "We fully complied with the law," he said.

Elinor Mills writes for CNET News.com