It’s official: Google is sticking its neck out into the enterprise applications market with its Google Apps for Your Domain. After a slow but deliberate investment in online web applications that mirror Office applications, Google has finally let the water out of the hydrant. Let the games begin!

Currently, Google is offering Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, and Google Page Creator to businesses that own a domain. The service is free during the beta. Paul Kedrosky has already played around with the service, and is impressed with the interface. Basically, there are no real suprises–just the usual clean and functional interfaces that we’ve come to expect from Google.

So, should Microsoft be shaking in their boots? With the push of Vista and its increased document sharing capabilities, Google is directly attacking Microsoft’s turf. But, it’s not going to be a walk in the park for Google, and here’s why:

• Responsiveness: On slower machines, Google’s online apps are significantly slower than Microsoft’s desktop offerings. No matter how they slice it, heavy duty apps running in browsers are less responsive than desktop apps today.
• Connectivity: Storing everything in Google’s datacenter means that you’re out of luck when you’re offline. There will probably be solutions for this rolled out in the next year, but currently, you’re stuck without an internet connection. Perhaps an Office exntension paradigm like what Xcellery provides could be a viable solution.
• Portability: Simple Excel and Word documents can convert fine. But, what about real-world complicated documents? These currently aren’t guaranteed to fly in Google’s world.

These problems are by no means simple, and I’m sure Google is actively looking into potential solutions, especially for the connectivity problem. If they can trump these three issues, Microsoft will certainly see a significant number of users jumping on the Google ship.