Sun Micro, Google Set Up Base Camp

Updated from 3:42 p.m. EDT

Sun Microsystems(SUNW Quote) and Google(GOOG Quote) struck a cross-distribution deal that takes long-term aim at Microsoft's(MSFT Quote) desktop dominance, but an accompanying long-term strategy has yet to be realized.

Despite a press conference Monday at the Computer Museum in Mountain View, Calif., details of the deal were scant, raising questions of whether a recent run-up in Sun stock and a drop in Microsoft shares were warranted.

Shares of Microsoft fell 52 cents, or 2%, to close at $24.98 in volume that was more than two times the daily average over the past three months; shares recently fell an additional 3 cents after hours. Shares of Sun recently lost a penny after closing up a penny at $4.20 after climbing more than 6% Monday on rumors of a Google deal. Google was trading up 69 cents, or 0.2%, at $311.69 in recent after-hours trading after closing down $7.68, or 2.4%, at $311.

Under a multiyear agreement, Sun said it will include the Google toolbar as an option on its consumer downloads of the Java Runtime Environment, Sun's software that enables Java applications on the desktop.

However, it's Sun -- not Google -- that can use more help distributing its technology. But both companies were short on details about how Google, the most popular search engine, will help distribute Sun's OpenOffice.org productivity suite, which so far has been unable to break the dominance of Microsoft's Office software kingdom.

In a vaguely worded press release, the companies merely said they "have agreed to explore opportunities to promote and enhance Sun technologies," including Sun's OpenOffice.org productivity suite.

When asked at a press conference Tuesday morning whether Google will specifically promote OpenOffice.org, Google CEO Eric Schmidt replied, "We're going to work to make the distribution of it more broad." But he said the company is not announcing any specifics yet.