Google Video for business marks the internet giant's continuing expansion into our lives and a decisive step further into the web office market.
The new application will be added to Google Apps Premier at no extra cost and will ape many of the easy-use features of its own creation, YouTube.
The suite costs $50 a person annually. Video storage of up to 3GB is offered, with individual videos limited to 300MB in size.
The new application allows workers to upload and share videos within their group or company. Among the many similarities to YouTube are options for easy uploading and sharing, as well as the ability to add descriptions and tags at the touch of a button, and embed the videos within web pages, or any site that accepts Google gadgets.
It's got soul
Matt Glotzbach, Product Management Director of Google Enterprise, described the new app as a "a whole new way of working" with collaboration as "the 'soul' of Google Apps" and video as the next big step in rich collaboration, thanks to cloud computing.
A student-friendly version will be available on a free trial for six months between September 9 and March 9 2009 from which point it will cost $10 annually for each user.
It may not yet be close to breaking Microsoft's stranglehold on software for the office environment but it's a bold and significant step into its territory.
