After much hoopla and speculation that Google was going to finally announce the Big One that would finally get the monster from Redmond running, it turns out it wasn't as much fireworks as a sputter and a whimper announcing its partnership with Sun Microsystems that included putting more Google Toolbars in peoples' PCs and lifting Sun's sinking stock price, showing the tech industry's version of the defibrillator, and how it worked wonders on Sun's stock and long-suffering stockholders.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin also said that they were not going to offer a competitor to Microsoft's Office Suite. At least that's what he said officially. It's what he didn't say that was the real bombshell.

Very very careful not to make Netscape's mistake and directly pick a fight with software's version of the evil empire, Brin showed his prowess in spin by stating on the record that a 'fat client' like Office was now the way to go.

Which obviously led everyone to go for the corrollary, that if they weren't going to offer a fat client, then they've got a thin one in the works. And if you thought so too, you'd be correct, Bunky.

Brin told search engine impresario John Batelle, "I don't really think that the thing is to take a previous generation of technology and port them directly. However distributed thin web applications allowed you to do new and better things than the Office package and more."

Boom goes the dynamite and the C4 after all. And Bill Gates runs away with a lot of shaking in his trousers. Well maybe not, but this is really all the indication you need to know they've got an Office alternative in the works, in the same way net application providers like Salesforce.com and NetSuite already have.

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