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October 10, 2006 9:01 PM PDT
Google combines word processing, spreadsheets
Last modified: October 11, 2006 6:00 AM PDT
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The company launched on Wednesday a beta version of Google Docs & Spreadsheets. The free program lets people create, manage and share documents and spreadsheets on the Web.
The program enables people to collaborate online in real time, use a variety of file formats for importing and exporting, and publish documents and spreadsheets on a Web page or blog.
Google is not targeting the desktop productivity suite market place that Microsoft dominates with Office, despite speculation that it is, said Jonathan Rochelle, Google Docs & Spreadsheets product manager.
"It made sense to combine these products and people were asking for that," he said. "It doesn't change our strategy. This is complementary to desktop products...and lacks certain advanced features" of desktop products.
Starting with e-mail, Google has been launching Web-based services and software in a move seen by many as encroaching on Microsoft's turf. Microsoft has responded by revamping its business to focus on Web services under the Windows Live and Office Live monikers.
Google acquired the online word-processing application Writely in March and launched Google Spreadsheets in June. Google recently opened Writely up to the public.
Google also sells a product to corporations and organizations that they can offer their employees and members for free called Google Apps for Your Domain that ties together Web-based e-mail, calendar, chat and Web page publishing.
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I am impressed especially by the "Save as PDF" option, which allows easy creation of PDF.
Wish Microsoft atleast now learn something out of this and try to get it done in future versions of Office.
Manu (http://manusword.blogspot.com/)
The second shift came today, when Google combined Writely & Google Spreadsheets into Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Last week Google said they were going to stop releasing new products & services, just for sake of releasing them. Instead Google said they were going to focus on improving their existing products, and it only took them a week. They have also refocused the efforts of their engineers to tweak their world class serch engine
Now compare that to Microsoft. Over three years ago Microsoft announced their "Trustworthy Computing" initiative. Talk about a load of hot steaming bullsoft. Microsoft's current software is as buggy as ever and the new software still hasn't made it out the door. Meanwhile, Microsoft dives head first into the security software and portable document business. Major bullsoft. All this after rebranding/repackaging/renaming many existing software services under the "Windows Live" brand. Notice I didn't say improving.
So, Google's strategy it seems, is to focus on existing products to strengthen them and to buy companies that compliment their company. Microsoft's strategy is to rebrand/repackage/rename their existing average/over priced software, and hope that no one notices they really don't have a strategy.
In my first blog article, I wrote about the Long, Slow Death of Microsoft. Prophetic? Visonary? Not really. Millions hold the same opinion, and that number grows daily. But over the last few days it may prove I've miscalculated. Maybe it's not going to be the Long. Slow Death of Microsoft. The web-centric world is speeding along, and Microsoft is just a deer in the headlights.
I'm Guessing ©2006
I guess valley VCs want to dump more of their stock on the public so it is press release pump it and dump it time.
http://www.os2ezine.com/v1n13/opendoc.htm
Any real threat to the Microsoft dominance on the desktop platform from my perspective will come when IBM introduces the new Lotus Notes (HANNOVER)
http://www-142.ibm.com/software/sw-lotus/products/product4.nsf/wdocs/productivitytools
which is scheduled to be released in 2007.
It doesnt give you them same quick response as if it was locally installed.
I dont think corporations (esp the ones with tight firewalls) will want to switch out for this.
For the casual user (that doesnt use pirate software and cant afford ms office and doesnt know about open source alternatives) this is far better than Notepad... unless vista is comes with like Notepad spreadsheets or something.
Anything web 2.0 makes news, like it's the coolest thing you've ever seen in your life or something.
Personally, I rather use openoffice. It's free, it sits in my computer patiently waiting for me to use it.
If I get to a point where my office documents need to follow me around all day, I'll need a vacation and a change in career!
Combined with Google Docs, Domain Web Pages, Gmail, Calendar, and Chat, I think it is better then having applications and files saved on a hard drive and my website in another location.
Weblications are a better paradigm than applications and files on a computer. I log in and I can do anything I need to do in order to run my business.
It may not be for everyone, but I think it is the future of computing and before you worry about having all your data online, you can backup by exporting your data to your computer .
Now I can run the website, look after emails, update spreadsheets, and write docs from any computer in the world.
I don't always need to lug around my laptop.
Plus, I can easily publish them to multiple blogs, even if I switch blogging services!
This is one happy camper.
For the rest, I think they can better. I installed MOST of their software because there is real trust! about this company. I love them because they're able to sort my problems when I need to surf the web;-) but, Google earth for a low connection is not good, and plus it's heavy. Same for Picasa. If they will arrive to produce slim and very goof software, nobody will bein grade to win them. This is for sure, because I love ALL their products!!!!!
Anna
The security issues of having corporate documents on Googles servers is probably overstated at this stage. Many companies outsource their servers and data warehousing and even content stored on a server in corporate HQ still has a level of exposure if documents can be accessed offsite particularly for collaborative editing.
Of course the Office Suite in a browser approach also has a somewhat better resistance to the class of virus that forwards your local documents to everyone on your mailing list too!
In the real world the main risk with corporate documents are with leaks and unauthorized forwards - rather than hacking, cracking or virus related leaks.
In this space Google's Docs and spreadsheets are going to be particularly strong if they go ahead with the digital rights management module from AegisDRM which adds functionality similar to (but actually rather stronger than) Microsoft's Information Rights Management (IRM) into Docs and Spreadsheets.
Then, there are the issues of uptime/downtime and security.
Forget it...
- The next step after Google Docs and Spreadsheets
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by Msteffen
November 17, 2006 10:42 AM PST
- When I first encountered a promotion for Google Docs and Spreadsheets Beta version after logging out of my AdWords account I was skeptical. Could this application really offer all the benefits of software like MS Word and Excel in a web-based format? The fact that Google has been developing a few other very impressive web-based applications lately convinced me to at least give it a try. Google did not let me down, it does everything they claimed it would do, and does it very effectively. The fact that you can create a spreadsheet online, not only upload them from your hard drive, is my favorite feature. It is especially impressive that you are able to use the same formulas as in MS Excel directly on the web-based spreadsheet.
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See all 46 Comments >>Google Docs and Spreadsheets is a great collaboration tool. I can see it making a huge impact. However, I see this impact being for more simple collaboration needs. Students will probably use it more than any other group. It seems great for sending homework to yourself, working on assignments on various computers (in a library, computer lab, or other public computer labs common to academic campuses), and even for small companies with very simple collaboration needs.
I do not, however, see this solution being implemented for large-scale collaboration. It lacks high-level database structuring, key reporting features, certain access control privilege settings, advanced search and are necessary for it to become a complete enterprise business solution. Nevertheless, I can only think of one application that has all these features; it could be called ?Google Docs and Spreadsheets on steroids.? This web-based software, Interneer Intellect, would probably be more appropriate for mid-to-large sized organizations looking for a web-based collaboration solution. However, Intellect lacks the ability to create spreadsheets online. It does integrate with MS Excel, Access and Project to make up for that.