<wiki> Jason Fried from 37Signals has written a very interesting point of view on how Google may be deceiving the competition by making them look the other way:
What if Google was so brilliantly twisted that theyâ[TM]re using Writely and Spreadsheet and Calendar and massive numbers of new hires as flares to distract Microsoft (and others)? Shoot up a flare (Spreadsheet) and scare Microsoft into paying even more attention to new attacks from new directions. The flares serve one purpose: to redirect competitorsâ[TM] energy away from focusing on search/ads, which are Googleâ[TM]s core competency (and primary revenue source). Hey look over here!!! Is Google the best slight of hand magician around? Is the âoeGoogle Officeâ just a head fake?
There may be more to it than meets the eye, but this certainly is true to some extent. I’ve never thought about it this way, though. Again, go Jason.