Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Google Excel

Yep.. Google is slowly but surely creeping up on Microsoft. Google just announced limited availability of its newest product called Google Spreadsheets taking direct aim at Microsoft Excel.

Google Spreadsheets sneak peak promises lot of cool features including the ability to import and export .xls format and the ability to do instant online collaboration with up to 10 people.

Even though Google continues to deny about coming up with an alternate for MS Office, I have a feeling that Google Office is not very far off. They bought Upstartle , creators of web-based word processing software Writely few months ago. Now if Google can come up with an answer for MS Powerpoint, Google Office would be complete. There is no need to find an alternate for MS Access as it is one of least used software in the MS Office suite and its relevance in the services world is diminished.

Google's desktop universe is expanding rapidly and I am truly amazed at the speed and periodicity of they come out with new offerings. Way to go Google...

ps: Not long ago, we used to refer to spreadsheets as Lotus 123. It was Lotus, who brought the spreadsheet concept to the market. But how many would know about it, let alone use the Lotus 123 software. I do have Lotus 123 in my machine as it came with it but I hardly use it. Will Microsoft Excel meet the same fate as Lotus 123? I hope it does.

4 comments:

  1. Where did u get the idea that MS access is the least used ??? Some kind of IBM brainwashing eh !!!

    US economy runs mainly on small businesses and Micro business (mom and pop shops). And guess what they use ? Not IBM's DB2 or MySQL but MS Access.

    Every blogger I know hypes about Google's offering but it's not because they are awed by Google's offering, it's more of MS hate that makes them hype up google.

    Can you tell me one google product that has revolutionized the world ? Even Google Maps is not that revolutionary as any Tom, Dick and Harry doesn't use it everyday.

    The less said about Gmail the better. U cannot even create a folder structure there.

    Google is ominously following MS way. MS would just buy the products and make it their own. Famous purchases include Excel, ASP and VISIO. I see the same trend here. Buying Writely and a host of companies.

    Pardon my rant, these fellows don't even do search properly....And I had first hand experience of their search limitations.

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  2. Karthik

    We must be living in different planets.. 'cause my views are just the opposite..

    From Search to mail to maps, Google has brought about game changing plays everytime.

    With their web based spreadsheet, they are changing the game once again and reducing our dependency on wintel platform - thick client machine.. This excites me a lot..

    I can go on and on.. but the bottom line is .. Google and Apple are leading the innovation game and everyone else is playing catch up games with them..

    Ram Viswanathan

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  3. Ram,
    It doesn't matter if others are playing catch up games, the reality is in these areas catch up makes sense. Imagine if MSFT comes with it's own web version of Excel, will they have a better chance of attracting the crowd or google.
    I agree that Google-ists are innovators but I would rather see their innovations make money. As an individual I spent $20 with MSFT buying their MS-Office suite thru Home Use Program at my company in the last 6 months. I've not spent a penny with Google.
    Apple and Google though share innovation differ in other areas. Apple creates tangible products that ppl cannot live without. If Google is gone tomorrow I wouldn't feel a pinch.
    For me the bottom line to measure any new introduction webbased or otherwise is whether the company can make money.

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  4. Karthik

    I agree with you that companies need to make money.. and Google has definitely found a way to make money out of advertisements.. In fact, they innovated there also with the adsense concept..

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