Google dived further into the Web-based productivity-applications market by offering a new product that combines its online word-processing and spreadsheet programs.
The company launched a beta version of Google Docs & Spreadsheets on Wednesday. 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 to the contrary, 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 email, 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 organisations, which they can offer their employees and members for free, called Google Apps for Your Domain. It ties together Web-based email, calendar, chat and Web page publishing.
Talkback
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.
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. I had never heard of Google Apps before reading this article. 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, <a href=www.interneer.com>Interneer Intellect</a>, 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.