Update: Okay, here's one more link about this topic, but only because it's fantastic. Donna Bogatin carefully dissects the arguments I've made and rebuts many of them. I love the thought that went into this, and that the focus is on a long-term big picture, instead of a comparison of Google's and Microsoft's products today, which is where I was focused. It's a convincing counter-argument to my earlier post.

• Maura Welch covers the announcement at the Boston Globe's Business Filter blog.
  

  I agree with Dash, though, that the small to medium sized business owner who is not tech-savvy is likely to be confused by both offerings. They might think Microsoft Office Live is a free version of Excel and Word - which it's not. And they may never even think of Google Apps for Your Domain because they only know Google as a search company.

• Steve Bryant, on his eWeek blog, pumps up a jokey press release that a competitor used to ride the Google announcement's coattails.
• David Smith puts the announcement in the context of the (sadly underplayed) many educational institutions that might make use of the tools.
• Roger Dooley says, "One way or the other, don’t expect an overnight change - businesses have to get comfortable with giving up some control in return for the benefits of remote applications."
• Joseph O'Connell: "When are we going to see the insights gained from Web 2.0 (blogging, tagging, social search, wikis, etc.) further integrated into our office productivity tools? Personally, I think these opportunities are far more exciting than wondering who will "win" and "lose" in the Google vs. Microsoft debate." Amen!
• Dan Farber, on his ZDNet blog, "What's true is that there are several signs that Web-hosted, software-as-a-service productivity applications are for real, but not that Office or Microsoft is dead…at least not yet."