Google Spreadsheets Launches

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1. Christopher Finke
   

   June 6th, 2006 at 8:30 am

   Where are the screenshots mentioned in the last paragraph?

2. Jacob
   

   June 6th, 2006 at 8:31 am

   They are already sending out invitations. I received mine this morning, but haven’t had much time to play with the app yet.

3. Michael Arrington
   

   June 6th, 2006 at 8:33 am

   Cool. I can’t wait to get mine and try this out.

4. Dave
   

   June 6th, 2006 at 8:38 am

   Yea its out. Got my invite a few hours ago. Its very nice and sleak. Will be very useful for keeping track of money etc

5. Channy
   

   June 6th, 2006 at 8:39 am

   Already I got invitation in 5 hours. You can see snapshot of it in http://channy.tistory.com/atta.....744398.gif

6. Matthew Stibbe
   

   June 6th, 2006 at 8:41 am

   It feels like they’re going for the full set: Base, Calendar, Mail, Writely and now Spreadsheet. It’s only a matter of time before they do something with presentations and they’ve covered off all the basic functionality of Microsoft Office. Of course, it has to move beyond an announcement first. As I posted on my blog earlier, Microsoft seems to be aiming for Google’s territory with MSN and hosted applications so I’m looking forward to a clash of the giants in the next year.

7. Anon
   

   June 6th, 2006 at 8:44 am

   Don’t you mean an AJAX spreadsheet editor…not a calendar?

8. BK
   

   June 6th, 2006 at 8:47 am

   I guess we can safely say that there will be no acquisition of a spreadsheet company by Google

9. Thai Bui
   

   June 6th, 2006 at 8:49 am

   You should also check out Tracker from Jotspot. They’ve been out for a while and they also have collaboration.

   Also, as you’re waiting for your invitation Google Blogoscoped has a couple good moves to watch that are very revealing of the immaturity of the product.

   I’m not really impressed yet; you can see my thoughts on my blog. I don’t think MS has much to worry about (from the product feature or usability side) for quite a while…

10. Marco
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 8:54 am

    I’ve received an invitation after only a few hours from my submission… nice !

    Marco

11. Nik Cubrilovic
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 8:56 am

    Anon you are right - there was a typo, fixed now, thanks

12. Michael Arrington
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 8:57 am

    calendar…spreadsheet…whatever. I’m grouchy this morning after waiting up all night for this product. Or rather, tour of a product.

13. Anon
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 8:58 am

    Michael, I’ll gladly give you one of my gmail accounts to which I’ve received an invite…just drop me an e-mail.

14. Jimmy
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:00 am

    I don’t think this is going to challenge *anything* in business. For personal use, it’s awesome… but there’s not a company out there who would willingly put their confidential information on someone elses servers.

15. Michael Arrington
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:08 am

    Dave, #4 - yes, FINALLY we have a way to keep track of personal expenses using a computer. Thanks Google.

16. David Lee
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:10 am

    Hi, Guys, this is David from EditGrid. You may take a look at our online spreadsheet: EditGrid (http://www.editgrid.com), too. It’s a pretty comprehensive. I think Google’s joining the web spreadsheet party would make the market bigger and healthier.

    There will still be a long journey to go to have web-based spreadsheet apps replacing MS Excel. But I’m sure that day will come.

17. Vivek Puri
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:12 am

    Try out http://editgrid.com . Much better than zoho or jotspot where you have add rows manually.

18. Anon
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:13 am

    David Lee:

    “As anticipated, Google will release its own spreadsheet. Our target is to do a web spreadsheet better than Google. Google’s size and innovative workforce allows it to do and excel in many things. While we at EditGrid put in all our passion and innovation here, the real competition is about to begin.”

    -from EditGrid Blog (http://blog.editgrid.com/)

    That doesn’t sound like a healthy attitude….

19. caw
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:15 am

    There’s something I’m not getting here. Online spreadsheets, word processors et al are really swish achievements to be running in web browsers, as a coder I bow down to the brilliance that put this together.

    But once you’re past the novelty, what’s the point? Spreadsheets have been around about as long as computers, everyone’s got one, we can share them over networks, there’s great free ones as well as Excel.

    It reminds me of the ‘old days’ when sites used to hit the news just because they existed…

20. Sam
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:17 am

    EditGrid looks and feeld much better than Google Spreadsheets right now. But Google has the upper hand in so many respects. It will have more resources to get its product up to scratch, it had the fact many people already have Google Accounts, it has a well known name, and it has the possibility of integration with many other services.

    I think GOffice is going to be brilliant.

21. Vivek Puri
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:19 am

    whats wrong with that? I still appreciate what they have built.

22. Sam
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:21 am

    caw: It is the idea you can get them anywhere. Edit them anywhere. And for free.

23. Vivek Puri
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:24 am

    [quote]
    caw

    But once you’re past the novelty, what’s the point? Spreadsheets have been around about as long as computers, everyone’s got one, we can share them over networks, there’s great free ones as well as Excel.
    [/quote]

    You dont need to pay $300(ms-office) for excel, can access your docs from anywhere, multiple people can edit them concurrently, can have version history of changes, you dont need to upgrade any software or patch the software, you need to worry abt your pc crashing or loosing hard drive and all the data…….

24. David Lee
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:27 am

    Competition makes bigger market and brings new technology advancements. We at EditGrid are really glad that Google is joining. We are having a good time discussing how we can further improve EditGrid.

    Google’s joining also drive cooperation. I’m just being ping by one of our potential competitor to discuss cooperation. =D

25. Anon
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:29 am

    David: Fair Enough. Ironically, I found your service via Google’s sponsored links by searching for Google Spreadsheets. Looking forward to see what the future may bring.

26. mip
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:29 am

    I received my invite and wrote about it over at my blog (www.mipsscan.com).
    First impressions are that they’ve done an amazing job with it.

27. dbai
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:43 am

    For me the most impressive is its built-in formulas. Over 230+ formulas! With these formulas Google Spreadsheets can perfectly open .xls that contains many complex formulas!

28. Qian Wang
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:46 am

    The question is, how does Microsoft respond? This is obviously disruptive (in the true Christensen sense) to Excel:
    1.It has fewer features but it’s also simpler.
    2.It’s much cheaper and more easily accessed.
    3.It has a completely different value network.
    Microsoft must know this. I’d be very surprised if Gates/Ballmer were not intimately familiar with Prof. Christensen’s work (and actually understand it as well). According to Christensen’s model, the best course of action for MS would be to go head to head with Google on this and to do so within a separate company or independent unit. If MS chooses to ignore Google and take Office further upmarket, focusing on the most demanding and profitable users, then they are doomed. Or if they try to launch a competing product within the existing organizational and value network, they will also fail. So what will they do? Start cannibalizing Office themselves right now or wait for Google to do it. It’s going to be painful either way.

29. Christian J. Koch
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:50 am

    Errrrrrr

    Just got my invite and tested it

    tried to open a file from my comp and google said it was too big…

    http://www.limited-exposure.or.....eets-eeek/

30. Sudar
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 10:09 am

    I am 99.99% sure that Google is currently building a PowerPoint Killer.

31. Wai Yip Tung
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 10:14 am

    Powerpoint is definitely over. It is so much better to make web based presentation. OperaShow has been around for a while, but somehow they never market it?

    See Jon Udell’s column for several products recommendation

    Web-based alternatives to PowerPoint
    http://www.infoworld.com/artic.....gic_1.html

32. Vivek Puri
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 10:25 am

    try http://www.thumbstacks.com/ for slideshow. Need work though

33. Jason Cox
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 10:31 am

    Do you guys know if there’s any such tool like this
    except that 3 or 4 ppl could edit a WORD DOC or
    a website at once?

    We write sales letters and business plans quite often
    and I have 5 people who all do different peices then we
    have to put it all together and wait for each other and it’s
    a huge Pain in the Ass…

    this same idea for WORD DOC would be a life saver!

34. Christian J. Koch
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 10:41 am

    Jason,

    Google aquired writely, which will be just that

35. T Stein
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 10:48 am

    You might also look at ThinkFree (thinkfree.com), which has an app very close to Excel. They also have a Word-like and a PowerPoint-like app. And 1GB storage online. The advantage for me of these web-based apps is that the files reside on the web and can be easily edited from any location. Beats having to synch by whatever means. Then, since they are Office-compatible, you can bring the files local if you wish.

36. Bart Claeys
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 12:39 pm

    For a bunch of similar online spreadsheet services, check http://www.yell.be/?p=3

37. David Brunelle
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 12:43 pm

    In my opinion, a spreadsheet, word processor, presentation tool, or :::insert productivity suite application here::: is basically useless to me if it can’t be available offline. Imagine needing access to a spreadsheet and finding out your internet connection is down? Or wanting to access a spreadsheet while you’re air born? Or you’re security conscious and don’t want to work on your budget over an open wifi connection?

    Please… just as #19 (Caw) said - it’s all just novelty. Until there’s a way to be securely connected to the internet 100% of the time, this kind of online office suite won’t have a place in the business world or in many people’s personal lives either.

38. Lach
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 12:54 pm

    We’ve (AudienceCentral) been doing collaborative document drafting and editing for 7 years, big deal, right? Wrong. The big deal here is that anyone* can access it, anytime, anywhere; and it’s totally free. This is news worthy because a BIG company (no offense at all to the other online spreadsheet makers) has decided to put money into the consumer online document editing game. Microsoft and even Openoffice have either balked at this idea or ignored it, but Google is trying it. It will absolutely make the online document editing market richer, by introducing it to the world as a viable alternative.

    Thanks, Google.

39. Firoz
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 1:11 pm

    Building a spreadhseet in a web browser is impressive, but come on, let’s not get over excited. If this product was launched as a desktop app, no-one would take it seriously. It would be dismissed for the paucity of its features. The mere fact that it runs in a web browser though seems to be enough to get everyone high!

    Desktop computers today are incredibly powerful - capable of so much, and yet we get excited by a web app that gives us functionality that’s been available in desktop apps for more than a decade. This is progress is it?

40. TK
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 1:28 pm

    The spreadsheet is not complete with excel. However, it provides a must better intergation with Google other offerings.

    For example, the froogle section of google is allowing small seller to upload excel file with their inventory list. Now, they can directly put in the google spreadsheet and directly pipe to the froogle database.

    Furthremore, the spreadsheet will also provide a front end for google base - the google database.

41. Yakov
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 1:31 pm

    Agreed. Do not immitate, innovate. Where’s any innovation here?

42. GregR
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 1:38 pm

    The issue is not that it is as good as excel, but it is good enough to support users who would not normally fork over $500 for MS Office.
    Dont fall off your seat but there are people who dont use MS Office and have no need for it. AJAX hits the spot

43. Robert Dewey
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 1:41 pm

    I’m still waiting for the eBay killer. And the pay service. And the integration between the eBay killer and the web development app. And the browser. And the Google OS.

    Don’t get me wrong, my sarcasm shouldn’t be perceived as me stating their method of “spidering” out into various markets is wrong. In fact, it’s probably a good method, because they will eventually hit something that “clicks”… However, I’m just afraid that their choice of revenue (advertising) isn’t the best, and could be disrupted by another player.

44. Wil Schroter
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 1:44 pm

    Yet another Google Solution looking for a problem.

45. Laurent Geyer
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 2:14 pm

    @43.

    What differentiates Googles revenue model from traditional print media and TV?

46. saurab
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 2:19 pm

    The great advantage is that you can collaborate online in real time with your colleagues and simultaneously chat with them while working on the spreadsheet as a team.

    i also hope they integrate this with other google services such as google calendar (and the upcoming re-launch of writely). it could also integrate well with adwords+google calendar just upload a spreadsheet with your list of keywords, max bids etc and you’re done…

    i guess if they release the API for this it’ll be very cool.

47. Ming Yeow
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 2:31 pm

    “Powerpoint is definitely over. It is so much better to make web based presentation. OperaShow has been around for a while, but somehow they never market it?”

    Why would that be the case? Writely and Editgrid are great — i have been using them for a while and they fill my needs very well, but for powerpoint, where i do many relatively complex functions, the web based powerpoints are far from adequate.

    What Powerpoint needs now is an built in web-delivery model - one that allows flash-like viewing over the web, or better yet, conversion to a html-based and cross browser document. With that, it would be hard for a web app to displace it.

    As for collaboration… lets see what MS build in the next generation!

48. Scott
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 2:35 pm

    I accidentally found out that you can get a Google Spreadsheets account without being invited by Google.

    I got my invitation this morning at the Gmail account I use for my business, and I imported a spreadsheet. I then used the “Share this spreadsheet” function to send an invitation link to my “personal” Gmail account (so I could update that spreadsheet no matter which Gmail account I was already signed into).

    Later, when I switched to my personal Gmail account, I opened the email I sent from my business account, and clicked the spreadsheet link. Then I created a new spreadsheet, and saved it. Now I have a separate Google Spreadsheets account assigned to my personal Gmail account, too.

    Just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, I sent a “Share this spreadsheet” invitation to a friend’s Gmail account. He opened it, created a new spreadsheet, saved it, and now he, too, has his own Google Spreadsheets account….

    Therefore, anyone who has a Google Spreadsheets account can “unofficially” invite anyone else to get their own Google Spreadsheets account. Just create a new, blank spreadsheet, send a “Share” invitation, and after the people to whom you’ve sent the “share” link have created their new accounts, delete the shared spreadsheet (or remove shared access to it).

49. Nikolay Kolev
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 3:30 pm

    1. Collaboration, online storage and publishing could be addons to Excel/Word/PowerPoint integrated with Office Live or even a third-party service provider.

    2. Open Office is also free and almost as powerful as Microsoft Office is. It can also have similar addons and service providers.

    3. People on the go have notebooks… or at least a subscription to GoToMyPC or an alternative.

50. alexander
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 3:42 pm

    I dont think this is a mistake from google, its the same with writley.

    Cant spread very fast anyway, not in a pace they cant keep up with. However, releasing to everyone would bring on a very high load.

    If I were Steve Balmer I wouldn’t be very happy right now, within about two months we have seen word (google bought writley), outlook (google calendar, and the not so new gmail), excel (google spreadsheet). Sure, everyone but gmail got some work ahead before larger numbers of users will jump on, but if they keep the same development speed they usualy have I’d say perhaps half a year or something and we might have some googleoffice thing. This would’nd be as full-featured as office, but could still take alot of users away from MS Office (which is microsofts cash-cow). I wouldn’t be happy if I were microsoft now..

51. dooley
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 4:19 pm

    how easy would it be for google to offer a downloadable, local version of spreadsheet, calendar application etc. that is accessed and managed through a browser with no internet connection, and then synched up with the mothership online app when one lands and connects to the internet?

52. Ted
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 6:32 pm

    I did a quick write up on my impressions of Google’s new Spreadsheet as well as some screenshots that I happened to take. I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with it so far — it even managed to open some of my complex financial models. You can read the post here:

    http://www.gobabble.net/2006/0.....irst-look/

53. GRex
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 6:43 pm

    Opportunity radar: create custom spreadsheet template for that specific purpose. Eg. budget tracking, financial project, record keeping, portfolio tracking, etc…

    Now that we have a whole list of generic spreadsheet on the web, it’s turned into a commodity yesterday. Differentiation requires nailing down niches. In this case, that’s niches of spreadsheet users.

54. Robert Dewey
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 7:59 pm

    Laurent,

    A couple of things:

    1) TV and Print media is typically used for branding
    2) Fraud in such medium is very low

    The problem… What happens to Google when people stop clicking on the ads? What happens to Google when click fraud becomes a much bigger problem? No matter what, TV and Print media will still continue to brand.

    Take a look at Microsoft… They have several lines of REAL business. If the Windows O/S went bellyup, they could still survive with things like office applications, server software, video game consoles, etc.. What will Google fall back on? Spreadsheats? Writely? Gmail? Froogle?

    Like I said, they just have to find something else that clicks so they can diversify their revenue stream. Right now, I can’t shake the feeling that they are just a big MySpace making money from ads and only ads. Even Yahoo has diversity with a marketplace, premium services, etc..

55. Darmawi
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 8:38 pm

    I guess desktop application will be replace by Web 2.0 apps that offer collaboration, sharing and online storage feature

56. Notsocommon
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 9:58 pm

    To me, Google is chasing a white rabbit and has been for a while.

    Lets not forget MS Office did not reach its enviable market position overnight and it isn’t likely to be taken down anytime soon. There is market power in its current position. Google is fighting the wrong battle at this time.
    What if Google instead focused on what it was great at “Search.” Instead of releasing these unrelated products (and I don’t care what you say a beta is a product release in this day and age) what if Google focused that energy on redefining what a search engine is, and what search can do for people. I’m sure Google would continue to runaway with the market place, instead of releasing yet another product that has no short term destiny (or long term opportunity to create a competitive advantage).

    Thats all.

57. Bryce
    

    June 6th, 2006 at 11:06 pm

    I got in!!! It’s really, really good.

58. caw
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 12:12 am

    @56: Here here. I hope some voices at the Google AGM pipe up and say the same thing…

59. Nash
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 4:24 am

    Just like any other web based office alternative, there is no Right-to-left language support (hebrew, in my case). when i upload a spreadsheet in hebrew the text is all mixed up.
    this problem is also present in the hebrew version of openoffice, which makes it impossible for RTL writing in any software other than microsoft’s office.
    i presume this is also true for arabic and parsi languages that are being spoken by many more people around the globe.
    i guess the first web-based alternative which will have a good RTL support (at least as good as the office support) - will get a large share of users in countries where arabic, hebrew and other RTL languages are spoken.

60. Niklas
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 4:41 am

    As T Stein notes, Thinkfree Office is available and out there - albeit a bit heavy on the Java-side. We’ll see just how efficiently one can work using Google Spreadsheet as compared with Thinkfree Office soon enough.

    Otherwise, I’ve only used iRows which also is free, but not as good-looking or similar to MS Office as Thinkfree Office is.

61. Daniel Tschentscher
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 5:20 am

    Of course this is not a comparable tool to Excel yet, but the strategy behind it seems clear: If Google gets out a free alternative to MS Office, this might at least convince those people that don’t use the full office functionality anyways?

    Besides - do they really have another chance? Microsoft is already thinking about launching ad-support stripped-down version of MS Office, and that is a definite threat to Google dominant position in the ad marketplace.

62. danae
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 5:40 am

    Personally, I love Google’s Spreadsheets — I’m constantly switching between various computers, and having an online spreadsheet to do my accounts is really valuable. It doesn’t have all the functionalities of Excel, but it doesn’t need them — in my experience, I’ve never gone much farther than basic math with spreadsheets anyway. It may not be a ground-breaking innovation, but I think these offerings from Google are significant — soon, i’ll be managing a large part of my business and life through a Google product.

63. Dan100
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 6:05 am

    It’s cute, and will be useful for simple tasks such as minor planning within clubs, a little bit of finance tracking etc.

    But it’s *no* threat to MS Office in any way. And with Office 2007 being so damned good, I don’t care!

64. Trent Dyrsmid
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 8:15 am

    I think that I’m going to trade my office in for a palm tree with a WI-FI connection and just save everything to the web

65. macewan
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 8:54 am

    nanner - got an invite :p

    surprised that nobody commented on the date of this release 06-06-06 -> spreadsheet app - a numbers program released on 6-6-6.

66. Brad Neuberg
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 9:12 am

    I’d like to see folks hook this up to my framework, Dojo Storage, which can provides hundreds of K or megabytes of secure, client-side storage on web browsers. It works across 95% of the existing installed base on the web, is under a BSD license, and is part of the Dojo framework. I have also been experimenting with offline access to good effect. The big three browsers are supported: Internet Explorer, Firefox/Mozilla, and Safari.

    See a presentation I gave on Dojo Storage here at the Ajax Experience conference: http://codinginparadise.org/we.....-talk.html

    See demo application called Moxie that I created that is a web based word processor with persistent client-side storage and offline access, all open source for people to play with and build on: http://codinginparadise.org/e

    More info on Moxie: http://codinginparadise.org/we.....-with.html

    See blog post with more technical details: http://codinginparadise.org/we.....ccess.html

    Grab Dojo yourself: http://dojotoolkit.org

    Imagine if Google or one of the other web based spreadsheet folks hooked this into their products; it’s not hard to do. The API is like 5 lines of code. Moxie took me a single day to create using Dojo. I’d love to see this done, and the BSD license makes it a no-hassle thing; contact me if you want help.

    Best,
    Brad Neuberg
    bkn3@columbia.edu
    http://codinginparadise.org

67. Brad
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 9:31 am

    Real-time collaboration on documents and spreadsheets is tremendously overhyped by some. Most people have no use for it most of the time.

68. Oliver Beattie
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 10:33 am

    Oh, come on. How many more applications must Google produce before they drive the internet bubble to once again burst?

69. Stodva
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 11:40 am

    You can find more screenshots with all functions of Spreadsheets here: _http://www.ajaxpath.com/google-spreadsheets.php

70. Wai Yip Tung
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 11:52 am

    >>>47. Ming Yeow

    June 6th, 2006 at 2:31 pm

    “Powerpoint is definitely over. It is so much better to make web based presentation. OperaShow has been around for a while, but somehow they never market it?”

    Why would that be the case? Writely and Editgrid are great — i have been using them for a while and they fill my needs very well, but for powerpoint, where i do many relatively complex functions, the web based powerpoints are far from adequate.

    What Powerpoint needs now is an built in web-delivery model - one that allows flash-like viewing over the web, or better yet, conversion to a html-based and cross browser document. With that, it would be hard for a web app to displace it.

71. Wai Yip Tung
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 11:53 am

    >>>47. Ming Yeow

    June 6th, 2006 at 2:31 pm

    “Powerpoint is definitely over. It is so much better to make web based presentation. OperaShow has been around for a while, but somehow they never market it?”

    Why would that be the case? Writely and Editgrid are great — i have been using them for a while and they fill my needs very well, but for powerpoint, where i do many relatively complex functions, the web based powerpoints are far from adequate.

    What Powerpoint needs now is an built in web-delivery model - one that allows flash-like viewing over the web, or better yet, conversion to a html-based and cross browser document. With that, it would be hard for a web app to displace it.
    ///

    You may be the 5% of power user who find PowerPoint’s advance function irreplaceable. For others, putting up some bullet points and pictures quickly is all it needed. I don’t see any graphic effects that can be done with PowerPoint cannot be done in HTML. If writing HTML is too much for PowerPoint executives, some wiki style formatting code or Ajax editing tools would come to the rescue.

    Your point about PowerPoint needs a web-delivery model says it all. It is so great for the presentation to be available on the web, searchable and bookmarkable. Once people see this it will become silly to email around ppt files. The 15 seconds it takes to launch a standalone app to view a ppt would become annoying when it can be viewed in the browser instantly via an URL.

    This leave PowerPoint to be an authoring tool. Unfortunately it also means Microsoft will lose the monopoly on the ppt file format to the web. Can it still justify its dominance if it becomes yet another authoring tool?

72. Kevin Baggs
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 12:32 pm

    I couldn’t agree more. It’s getting ridiculous. This is beginning to approach the insanity of the Janet Jackson flash at the SuperBowl. It was only a boob! and this is only a spreadsheet!

    If you want to see something slick. Check out http://www.dabbledb.com and have a look at their demo. (no I don’t work for, know and am not related to anyone in the company). I just like a good demo when I see on.

73. ekc
    

    June 7th, 2006 at 2:53 pm

    Dan Bricklin, inventor of the original VisiCalc, has been at work reinventing the spreadsheet for the web:

    http://www.softwaregarden.com/wkcalpha/

    More importantly, WikiCalc is open source.

    I don’t believe that a closed-source web business application can be successful, regardless of how “free” it is in terms of price.

    Google should take a page from Bill Joy: “innovation happens elsewhere”. No matter how much money and and PR muscle a company throws at recruiting, the smartest people in the world will always work elsewhere.

    That being the case, why are all of these “web 2.0″ applications closed-source? The implication is that the developers of such applications believe that they understand the needs of their customers better than their customers do. How about “don’t be arrogant” instead of “don’t be evil”?

    Creating an open-source web app doesn’t mean that the originating company can’t control the development roadmap and offer free/paid hosting for the application. Sugarcrm is a good example.

    For all everyone has to say about Microsoft, the giant from Redmond has benefited more from opening the gates to 3rd party developers than any other software company in recent memory. There are, literally, tens of thousands of commerical applications built on the windows/office platform. Google is approaching this problem incorrectly. Microsoft is _not_ an applications company. Microsoft is not the most profitable software company because they sell applications. Microsoft, from its genesis, has been about developers.

    This may be heresey to say, but Microsoft is more about the “open source” ethos than is Google.

74. leMel
    

    June 8th, 2006 at 8:45 am

    Google Spreadsheets…okay, cool……..what, NO XML?!?!

75. Spencer Miles
    

    June 8th, 2006 at 3:19 pm

    Not just spreadsheets, now they’ve launched a web-based Minesweeper too. Microsoft, watch out!

    http://videoontheweb.wordpress.....-launches/

76. Mithun
    

    June 9th, 2006 at 12:37 am

    I recieved my invite 2day… Didn’t play with it too much yet, bu somehow I feel its still not as good as iRows (I’ve used it before)…

77. Benjamin Koe
    

    June 11th, 2006 at 1:12 am

    I was just playing with Google Spreadsheets and I thought that a really powerful feature that only Microsoft Office has (I think) is Mail Merging. I’d love to be able to mail merge between Gmail and Google Spreadsheets. Imaging the speed! No SMTP connections, everything gets sent out on Google’s remote servers.

    I know, I know, spammers weapon of mass destruction. But hey, if you’re a content producer or SMB you’d really appreciate such functionality.

    And for churches and non-profit orgs: No need to buy MS Office, just get a Google Account!

78. teetotaller
    

    June 16th, 2006 at 2:04 am

    Dear Michael,

    Would you please grant me invites for both writely and spreadsheets google? Thanks a lot!!!

79. SEO African
    

    June 23rd, 2006 at 2:26 am

    Man google, never seems to stop. This is a neat little answer to MS Excell.

80. sarang
    

    June 26th, 2006 at 7:02 pm

    Comparing to the IPod trend, if most of the people choose IPod paying a heavy premium, instead of any other mp3 player, when the functional differences are not much apart from the click-wheel, how a less functional product like Google spreadsheet will be used for any serious work after the initial euphoria just because it is free or rather less costly ?