I was just in the middle of typing something on Google Docs & Spreadsheets when I noticed it’s no longer called that – it’s now simply called Google Docs (Beta) and guess why? Yep, here’s Google Presentations.

At a very early first glance, the program looks great. It’s running so smoothly right now that it is truly hard to believe that this is an entirely online application.

It seems to have just about everything you would want in a presentation making tool. It has several themes, it offers the ability to play in full-screen (really full-browser) mode, and it’s very easily editable. I do not see any transition effects between slides, but you can bet that will come down the road.

Right off the bat testing out my demo Presentation I can see a definite advantage of such a service – you can very easily give an entire presentation online. I started a presentation on my desktop, set it running and then joined it on my laptop. A box appeared over my presentation letting me know that another user had joined my and I could immediately engage them in real-time conversation on the right-side bar (there are even emoticons if you’re into that sort of thing ).

Again, I’ve only used it for a short period of time, but this product looks to be another winner for Google. If you’re using a Mac and are sick of waiting for Office 2008 (and don’t want to buy iWork ‘08) – I say screw Microsoft, check out the new Google Docs – why not? It’s instantly available to anyone online – and free.