I think that the fact that google is behind it is in fact that only thing that drives all this media attention, it means that if it is anywhere near successful that it is going to set the bar for collaborative systems, and set it considerably higher than it has been before.

Cisco and a whole bunch of others have been trying to put together a comprehensive suite of tools to do all this, but so far they've failed to make it feel seamless. Google might change that, they've certainly got the resources to make it happen.

Just like there was already free email before gmail and search before google came along, it's a major event.

But I agree with you that all the components have been seen before, maybe with the exception of a system like this having an API.