Google first announced a slide web app in April 2007 at the CMP/O'Reilly Web 2.0 Expo. A limited number of Gmail accounts gained the ability to view PowerPoint slide decks from inside a Gmail a few weeks later. And, now, this feature is generally available to all accounts.

I looked at a couple of PowerPoint slide decks that were sent to me over the past few months. Gmail's Slideshow viewer did a passable job of transforming them to viewable slides in a browser. People who plan to regularly show (or expect receivers to view them) slides from Gmail will probably need to revise their slide designs to simpler ones that avoid photos, complex screen captures, and small crowded print (the last one being a good idea for any presentation medium).

Now, we have to wait and see if Google will add the ability to create slides directly from a web app and include this web app as part of Google Docs.