The 3 giants recently announced their inclusion in a new RAD Lab, which is initially comprised of Berkely staff.  The lab will work on the development of web applications, then give them away to anyone that wants them.

This could be a great start to a new open source movement, and could affect the business world if the apps are business motivated and related.

What seems to be most interesting is the fact of Microsoft's inclusion on the project.  Microsoft, still at odds with Google, claims that this is not a truce.  Meanwhile Sun and Google are partnered on a project that will compete with Microsoft's Office Suite.

Dominic Willett