This is a great start. I'm glad Google has the wisdom to devote a team to just this goal. I look forward to end-user tools they may develop to further accelerate this progress.
I agree, mildweed. Especially about the end-user tools.
It looks good to do this, and it is good. It's all win, and clearly it sets them apart.
That being said, in many cases, their answer is "There's an API for that." Why can't it be exported into a file format that will work in (at least some) other programs right off the bat? Surely there exists at least some suitable existing file format for the kind of data stored in Calendar, for instance.
I don't know why anyone would leave google apps for MS Office, but if they wanted to get their info out of Google Calendar, reading "There's the iCal API" doesn't actually sound that liberated to an end user.
Someone could make a tool that uses the api to convert the data, but it'd be nice if they provided data export into an existing format whenever one exists.
( see the disclaimer above; yes, they're the only ones doing this, it's awesome, etc. )
Hopefully each system will export data in an easily parsed structure, perhaps XML or something. Most of the API's in place are a little convoluted. A common, standard format and technique across all Google services would be best.
