Google Inc.

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Brains are working overtime at Google Inc. to explore ways of further integrating the search company's e-mail and instant messaging services with its hosted productivity applications.

The intention is to boost the group collaboration capabilities of the Docs & Spreadsheets hosted suite of office productivity applications. Although the suite's word processor, spreadsheet program and upcoming presentations application lack the breadth of features in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Google believes they offer users benefits over their Microsoft Corp. Office counterparts. Chief among the benefits, Google says, is the ability for workgroups to collaborate, since Docs & Spreadsheets files are hosted by Google and designed for multiple users to view and edit them. Word, Excel and PowerPoint, on the other hand, are desktop PC applications, which makes multiuser collaboration harder, Google argues.

Google Inc. has agreed to replace pre-Katrina satellite imagery of New Orleans with images of the city after the devastation of the 2005 hurricane, according to a blog post by John Hanke, director of Google Maps/Local/Earth.

The company made the decision after receiving a letter (download PDF) from U.S. Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, on Google's decision to "resurrect" the city of New Orleans by replacing satellite imagery from after Hurricane Katrina on its Web site with images taken before the storm.