IBM, Google to supply Web programs in offices

SAN FRANCISCO —  IBM Corp. has reached a deal with Google Inc. to bring the consumer Internet into the office by piping YouTube and thousands of other Web programs into IBM software used by millions of office workers.

The pact brings together Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, one of the world’s most popular consumer Web technology companies, and Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM, the biggest supplier of employee portal software that big businesses use to offer a kind of personalized home page for office workers.

In coming months, millions of users of IBM WebSphere will be able to choose from 4,000 existing Google Gadgets services -- mini-Web applications that users can add onto public sites or internal office intranets.

These include practical business applications such as maps, language translators, package delivery trackers or updated weather and news services, audio search or Wikipedia.

“These sites are not just valuable to consumers. Businesses want the same content. Why would we keep these two universes separate?” said Larry Bowden, vice president of the IBM Lotus division for portals and Web services.

Many businesses restrict access to Web applications for security reasons, to make network management easier and to limit employee distractions. By allowing Google Gadgets to work within its WebSphere portal, IBM will make it easier for companies to give employees access to Web programs while keeping control over how they are used.