File this under rumor: the Google Operating System blog yesterday posted evidence of what looks a lot like a Google (GOOG) answer to Microsoft's (MSFT) Powerpoint. Recall that Google purchased the maker of an online word processor called Writely last year, and has since relaunched the tool and re-branded it Google Docs and Spreadsheets (along the way it added the spreadsheet capability.)

It seems a few people snooping around Google Docs' header files have discovered repeated references to something called "Presently." Get it? Other embedded references include telltale hints like: "Convert document to presentation."

The clues are substantial enough to cause a stir. Michael Arrington was quick to pick up the thread, but found that even as he was typing, the evidence was being cleaned up: "During the time it took us to write this post," he writes, "the document was edited and all references to "presently" were removed." Think an enthusiastic programmer might have made a mistake at Google? Let chaos reign!

Paul Kedrosky, meanwhile, makes the important point that Google's Office-killer apps are already good enough for him. "While critics will be quick to point out that none of these apps are the feature equivalent (or even the 20% equivalent) of the Microsoft counterpart, I frankly don't care. For my entirely self-serving purposes when I have to do a quick doc, run a spreadsheet, more often than not I use the available Google tool."