Google preps online PowerPoint rival

Google is to launch a web-based presentation solution

Google is planning to roll out a web-based presentation application similar to Microsoft's PowerPoint in the coming months. 

The announcement was made by Google chief executive Eric Schmidt at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco.

The application will allow users to create and share business presentations over the web.

The software joins Google Documents and Spreadsheets in the company's growing suite of web-based applications which perform the same basic features as Microsoft Office.

Schmidt declined to describe the application as a 'PowerPoint killer', pointing out that Microsoft's application sports a much more extensive list of features than Google's web-based offering.

Instead, Schmidt sees the software as a web-based solution for users needing to collaborate online or work from multiple PCs.

Much of the software will come from Google's recent purchase of Tonic Systems, which makes Java-based presentation and document management software. 

"We have already freed those of you working in teams from the burdens of version control and email attachment overload when going back and forth on word processing and spreadsheets," wrote Google engineering director Sam Schillace on a company blog. 

"It just made sense to add presentations to the mix. After all, when you create slides, you're almost always going to share them."

Schillace confirmed that the new software will be available some time this summer.