Google to launch web-based presentation application?

Hmm, let's see here...Google now has a web-based word processor, a web-based spreadsheet app and a robust, web-based email client. Seems like all that's missing from the fabled "Google Office" suite is a web-based presentation tool. Rumor has it that the folks in Mountain View are working on just that, a web-based challenger to Microsoft's PowerPoint software. Some secret documents unearthed at the Google Docs website point to a presentation app called "Presently" (like "Writely," get it?), which would, allegedly, support full-screen slide viewing and conversion between presentation and document formats, much like Powerpoint does. As I've often suggested, it seems like Google is slowly and silently positioning itself to challenge Microsoft's Office suite in the workplace. A combination of free software, open standards and open APIs could eventually prove a winning formula with users, if not corporate IT departments. Microsoft, consider yourself warned.

For more on Presently:
- see this Ars Technica article