Google and Sun announced today that they are teaming up to promote their software, specifically these free products: Sun’s Javaâ„¢ Runtime Environment (JRE), the Google Toolbar and the OpenOffice.org office suite. Soon, the Google Toolbar will be incorporated into the JRE, and OpenOffice will get a Google search box. Sun and Google will do some research, development and marketing together. Additionally, Google will be buying more Sun servers in the future. Hopefully, this partnership with Google will mean that Sun’s isn’t quite ready to go down just yet.
Prior to the official announcement, the rumor was that the two companies were going to announce a competitor to Microsoft Office, perhaps named “Google Office”. That of course, did not come to pass, but just think: Google Office… Instead of a fat client that needs a desktop to run on, a web-based application that takes advantage of AJAX, and runs as smoothly as Google Mail or Google Maps, and best of all, free.