When Will Google Apps Take On Personal Finance Software?
Posted on June 14, 2007
Google has taken huge steps to begin eliminating desktop applications with the release of Google Apps a few months ago. The Google Apps Premier Edition contains enterprise centric versions of Gmail, Google Talk instant messenger and voice calling, Google Calendar, Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Page Creator for web page design, and iGoogle Start Page.
With all that said, the next step for Google would be to eliminate personal finance desktop applications. It is the perfect time. Quicken and Microsoft Money have run their course and have not made significant improvement or demonstrated a serious commitment to Web 2.0 functionality with any of their recent releases. I personally use Quicken and think it is a mediocre product with a dated interface. Microsoft Money I tried with a free trial, and was very unimpressed.
There are a ton of Web 2.0 personal finance applications coming out with no real market leader at this point. Some of the products I have seen include iOWEYOU, DimeWise, Buxfer, Wesabe, Mint, MoneyTrackin, SmoothBudget, and Foonance. They just don’t seem to cut it with functionality and integration at this point. They all have their advantages and disadvantages, without one falling into the killer app category.
What if Google took the Quicken application and overhauled it with massive Web 2.0 functionality and collaboration tools? Google could integrate the product into the Google Finance area with seamless collaboration tied into Google Calendar for reminders, Spreadsheets for exporting and printing reports, and Google Checkout for purchases and web bill pay, among many other possibilities. Google formed a ”strategic alliance” with Intuit last year for Google Apps integration with Quickbooks 2007. This could be the first step in a Quicken/Google Apps integration or maybe even a complete purchase of Intuit in the same fashion YouTube was bought. Google definitely has the cash on hand to make that happen with market cap of $137 billion while Intuit has a market cap of around $10 billion.
Other than giving one corporation complete control of all our communication, documents, and maybe soon to come financial information, what is not to like?
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What an excellent idea. After email and my web browser, I’d say personal finance software is next in terms of importance for me.
I agree that Quicken really could be so much better. It’s been around forever, and yet every new edition seems to add some worthless features and break a few things in the process. I’d love to see what Google could do with this type of application.