Google Inc. is preparing up to trade its e-mail and other Web-hosted software to a wider choice of government agencies after captivating a prized security permission. The sales announcement yesterday marks Google's newest effort to draw off users away from competitor Microsoft Corp., whose Office suite of e-mail, word processing, spreadsheet and other application is extensively used by government agencies and businesses.

Google is hoping that more centralized, state and local administration agencies will experience comfortable trade its online applications at the present that they contain the U.S. government's seal of approval. The Federal Information Security Management Act certification means that Google's system for running the online application is considered consistent adequate to store most electronic data handled by U.S. administration employees. The clearance doesn't cover confidential information.

Application licensing and extra non-advertising services accounted for $558 million of Google's income in that phase, a 53 % raise from the similar time last year. The government represents a potentially huge increase market for Google.