Google, Intuit Tag Team On Small Biz

When QuickBooks 2007 hits the shelves later this fall, buyers will also get the Google Desktop, easy access to Google AdWords, and the ability to embed their product listings and physical locations on Google Base and Google Maps, respectively.

While Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Intuit CEO Steve Bennett positioned this as a pairing of best-in-class partners trying to serve customers, many saw it as a pre-emptive assault on Microsoft's nascent Windows Live and Office Live franchises, which both target small-business customers.

"QuickBooks will integrate several Google services in a way that would help small business make themselves better known. For example, businesses could easily incorporate their info into Google Maps and get $50 credit to be used toward AdWords Listings," Bennett told reporters and analysts on a call Wednesday afternoon.

The anticipated upside: Google will sell more ads, Intuit will sell more QuickBooks, and small businesses will sell more stuff, the two executives said.

This is just the latest in what many observers see as a growing "Anyone But Microsoft" crusade movement among software competitors. Just as ISVs clustered around Netscape Communications in the 90s as a bulwark against Microsoft dominance, now they are flocking to Google.

In the last month, software-as-a-service (SaaS) darlings Salesforce.com and NetSuite both launched collaborations with Google. Both companies rely heavily on Linux and Oracle database infrastructure already.

In many ways these two particular players—neighbors in Mountain View, Calif.,—are the perfect fit. Intuit is one of the few software companies that has successfully faced down Microsoft not just once or twice, but several times. Microsoft got so frustrated in the late 1990s it tried to buy Intuit, but dropped the move in the face of antitrust concerns.

Microsoft's latest foray against Intuit, Office Small Business Accounting 2006 by most accounts didn't do particularly well. It's successor, Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 is now in beta.

Google needs Intuit to give it more credibility in business-class applications. Intuit's Bennett said "Google understands the Web better than anyone else."

In addition to the clear benefit of easing access to Google Maps and search, small businesses will be able to use Intuit technology, newly acquired with that company's purchase of StepUp Commerce to upload their product listings, prices, logos and other information to the Web where customers can find them.

The StepUp technology is the engine for uploading inventory from QuickBooks to Google Base, said Brad Smith, senior vice president of Intuit's small business division.

The business does not even have to have a Web site to participate. For those businesses Google will create and host a small-business page, a landing spot that can be customized for whatever look and feel they want, said Sheryl Sandberg, Google's senior vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations.

As to whether this combined software service might disintermediate current Intuit partners, Bennett didn't have much to say. "This touches on a wide range of customers, upwards of 1.5 million, but it won't meet all small-business needs. We have an open network for third parties to help us better serve customer needs," he said.