Just like Google Apps, the Start Page will also be hosted by Google and like the Apps, it will allow organizations to brand the Start Page as their own.

Forrester Research senior analyst Matt Brown said it was a bit confusing at first trying to figure out exactly what Start Page is.

"When I first looked at it, it looked like a portal from 1995," said Brown. Brown added, however, that it is the first time a major vendor has provided collaboration in a software as a service [SaaS] model.

The Start page will integrate various messaging components such as e-mail, e-mail sharing of documents, calendaring, and Google Talk, its instant messaging and instant talk technologies.

Although Google appears to be slowly but surely trickling out more and more capabilities in a hosted environment, Brown said it is a long way from being competitive with Office on an enterprise level. He added, however, that for certain "price sensitive" markets it will make sense, pointing out that there is a huge difference in the cost of supporting Microsoft Exchange Server and SharePoint server as opposed to using a hosted Start Page and Apps from Google.