Is Google Apps a challenger to Microsoft Office?

Google has long been the builder of neat tools of questionable value. Not so Google Apps, a suite of tools that seem to directly compete against Microsoft Office products. Google insists their tools only, "enhance" MS Office tools. However, I have been using their Documents and Spreadsheets tools for some time, and find there is no reason to pay money to Microsoft for a program that will do essentially the same thing. What makes all of this so interesting now is that Google is offering a paid Enterprise Suite of these tools, with every conceivable MS Office tool covered. Insert your maniacal laugh and dark comment regarding monopolies and karma here. I freely admit I have been a drinker of Google's Kool-Aid for some time - despite what I have felt were some notoriously silly ideas. (See: Google Mars.) They are in a unique position to challenge Microsoft, however, as they are not trying to sell their product in a box next to Office on the same shelf at CompUSA. The Google products are available for use online, not on a central computer, so records and documents can be accessed anywhere. Given Google's notoriously heavy security, this could even be a safer option for a small business than keeping records on a central server. You can make any calendar or spreadsheet or document public or private, and share them with other users. Beyond potentially undercutting Microsoft's biggest money maker in computer software, Google has come up with an ingenious counterstrike to Microsoft's attempt to regain search traffic with the way they pre-load MS Vista in newly purchased computers. If you are going to go to Google to get your office software, you are very likely going to use Google search as well - no matter what your browser is, or what your default search settings are.