Google and Microsoft are the biggest names in their respective domains- search and software. While Microsoft also has a share of the search pie with its Live Search, Google has its Google Apps suite that is a web-based competitor to some of the major Microsoft software applications. Google Apps has been trying to get ahead in the area of enterprise accounts, but it is well known that most of the companies that are used to Microsoft’s offerings and are not always eager to change over.

Nonetheless, Google has made some progress. One of the examples is Washington D.C., where it has been decided to stop spending on proprietary portal software for the city employees and use Google Apps instead.

Although it will not be a case of a complete replacement of Microsoft Office with Google Apps for the 38,000 municipal employees of D.C., it has been indicated by the officials that the migration from Office to Google docs is apparent. The city’s testing of the intranet with employees has been going on since June 2007 and for their e-mail services they are currently using Gmail while for documents and spreadsheets they are working with Google Apps.