Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) innovates with Google Apps Team Edition

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is one of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index. Google today announced new edition of the growing Google Apps family - Google Apps Team Edition. According to Google, this is the "the simplest and fastest way for groups of employees and students to collaborate within an organization".

“More than half a million businesses have already chosen Google Apps to collaborate and share information across the organization,” said Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager of enterprise, Google in the press release. “With Team Edition, groups of individuals at school or work can just as easily get the benefits of Google Apps by simply signing up online.”

Google Apps Team Edition allows teams to:

• Work on the same document, spreadsheet or presentation (instead of emailing changes in multiple copies of the same attachment)
• Publish documents and calendars for the team to view and update
• Access information from any computer, even mobile phones

Key applications included within Google Apps Team Edition are:

• Google Docs™ to create and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations
• Google Calendar™ to arrange meetings, set schedules, and publish event information
• Google Talk™ for instant messaging and free PC-to-PC voice calls
• Start Page where users can access their Google Apps services and customized content

Bottomline:

Google Apps Team Edition can become a useful alternative to Microsoft Office for small businesses, students, schools, small teams, non-profits and as such individuals looking to create and share basic documents, spreadsheets and presentations. It does not carry the price tag of Microsoft Office, and provides basic collaboration leveraging Docs, Calendar and Talk. Microsoft Office Live services do compete with Google Apps, however require some of the desktop applications. When you combine Google Apps Team Edition with Google Gmail, a team has most of the communication tools to get started. This suite can be quite efficient and reasonable for the businesses to begin their collaboration, and get a jump start. For the longer term, Google Apps may require standalone enhanced desktop editions of Docs and Calendar, so that more users can use Apps without a need for Internet connectivity. Perhaps, the standalone apps are already on Google Apps roadmap and will get launched in 2008. How much new business will Google Apps Team Edition create for Google? Not much in 2008. However, it will create many loyal users and would-be customers of Google Apps Premier Edition.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is also a Top 20 Innovator of The Innovation Index.

Invest in the Innovation Index Fund

We launched the new Innovation Index Fund in December, 2007 that invests in Google and the Innovation Index and returned 66% in 2007, and 174% in the previous five years. If you want to learn more about the Innovation Index Fund, fill out your contact information at the bottom of this form: http://www.innovationindexgroup.com/invest.html

The Innovation Index Reports:

Invest in The Innovation Index - Invest in the brand new Innovation Index Fund
Introducing The Innovation Index Fund - Invest into The Innovation Index
Top 50 Innovative Companies in the world - 2007 Report on Top 50 Companies
Annual Report - Chapter One - Total Innovation Activity - 2006 Annual Report One
Annual Report - Chapter Two - The Top Innovator - 2006 Annual Report Two
Annual Report - Chapter Three - The Innovation Insights - 2006 Annual Report Insights
Innovation and Stock Performance Correlation - The Innovation Index and Stock Performance

About The Innovation Index

The Innovation Index introduced in December 2006 is a weighted stock price index of the top 20 Innovators in North America.

The Innovation Index returned 66% in 2007, and returned 174% over the previous five years (2002-2006). This assumes equal investment in each stock of The Innovation Index as of December 31, 2001. An average of $100 invested in The Innovation Index on December 31, 2001 returned $454 as of December 31, 2007. By comparison, $100 invested in S & P 500 returned 28% or $129, $100 invested in NASDAQ returned 34% or $136, and $100 invested in the Dow Jones Index returned 30% or $131 through December 31, 2007. The Innovation Index beats the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index by more than seven times over the past six years.

Alphabetical list of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index for 2008 and their stock ticker symbols:

3M Company - (NYSE: MMM)
Amazon.com, Inc. - (NASDAQ: AMZN)
America Movil - (NYSE: AMX)
Apple Inc. - (NASDAQ: AAPL)
AT&T Inc. - (NYSE: T)
Best Buy Co., Inc. - (NYSE: BBY)
Cisco Systems, Inc. - (NASDAQ: CSCO)
Costco Wholesale Corporation - (NASDAQ: COST)
eBay Inc. - (NASDAQ: EBAY)
General Electric Co. - (NYSE: GE)
Google Inc. - (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Hewlett-Packard Co. - (NYSE: HPQ)
Intel Corporation - (NYSE: INTC)
International Business Machines Corp. - (NYSE: IBM)
Merck & Co., Inc. - (NYSE: MRK)
McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD)
Microsoft Corporation - (NASDAQ: MSFT)
NIKE, Inc. - (NYSE: NKE)
Research In Motion Limited - (NASDAQ: RIMM)
The Proctor & Gamble Company - (NYSE: PG)

The Innovation Index will analyze the positions and standings of the Top 20 Innovators at the end of each year. For 2008, there will be no further changes in The Innovation Index.

Disclaimer: The Innovation Index Group, Inc. invests in the stocks comprising The Innovation Index.