Google Docs and Spreadsheets has hit a bit of a growth curve since June. About 1.6 million people used the Web-based service in October, compared to 635,000 in June, according to Compete. That is a nice jump, but 1.6 million is still a marginal number compared to the desktop productivity apps (on just about every PC) that it is trying to replace. But, hey, it is still early days.
Notice in the reproduced chart below that Google Spreadsheets seems to be a tad more popular than Google Docs. The same trend is true on average time spent on each app (8 minutes per month for Spreadsheets, versus 6 minutes for Docs). For right now, I think that online Spreadsheets are the more compelling app. I use Google Spreadsheets on occasion to organize conferences and such, but have yet to write anything on Google Docs other than to test out the service.
I think that is because the utility of these services is as a collaboration tool and spreadsheets offer a way to structure information that lends itself to that type of usage. For documents, it is more often a read-only experience, for which e-mailing the document still works. If I do need to collaborate on a document, I do it in an online editor that is also a publishing system (Wordpress).
Beyond these numbers, what I’d like to see is a comparison to other online productivity apps from Zoho, Glide (which recently came out with a spreadsheet that works offline and syncs to the Web), and others.
Update: Ask and ye shall receive. Compete sent me comparable numbers for Zoho, Officelive, and Thinkfree, and Zimbra. (see second chart below). Google Docs and Spreadsheets dominates on monthly uniques. For November 2007, it had 1.6 million, versus 133,000 for Zoho, 168,000 for Officelive (which really isn’t a competing product yet), 46,000 for Zimbra (also not fully comparable since that is an e-mail client mostly), and 18,000 for Thinkfree. On a more apples-to-apples comparison, Zoho Writer had 31,000 unique visitors in November, versus 677,000 for Google Docs alone. Zoho Sheets had 12,000 users versus 694,000 for Google Spreadsheets. So even Google is leading by a mile here.
But Google cannot sit on its haunches. When you look at pageviews, Officelive, which is still a joke (although that will be changing soon), actually beats Google Docs with 4.8 million versus 3.5 million for November. Google Spreadsheets had 7.5 million pageviews, and Google Docs and Spreadsheets (including Presentations) had 17.3 million. (See third chart below, followed by a table with the corresponding pageview numbers).
I know I’ll be sending all my company’s important financial information straight across that unsecured network right now after this report.
It’s Kool aid time!
We recently started using Google Docs to collaborate between our team and the productivity jump is clearly visible. I think it is a matter of time before a lot other companies start using Google Docs.
Also, with CapGemni now pushing Google Apps (which, docs is a part of) to corporates, there should be an even more increase in usage.
Atleast Google can be sure that they have one company using it “religiously”. =)
Interesting Spreadsheets is doing so well given the perceived strength of these apps in the college market … are students using so many online spreadsheets? Or do it suggest more penetration into business world?
If our observation of this compete.com graph is correct -
Google Spreadsheet tried-it-out users 600K+, being approx equal to
Google Docs tried-it-out users 600K+, being approx equal to
Techcrunch readers 600K+, according to that Feedburner orange box…
And we all know how influential Techcrunch is
And 6 or 8 minutes /month?! Pretty much basically some take-a-look experience…
Compared to – how many minutes Techcrunch readers spend reading Techcrunch posts – per month…
I use Google Docs all the time, both docs and spreadsheets, and even lately a couple presentations. I’ve actually been using documents more lately. Spreadsheets I’ve created, and spend a few minutes a week keeping updated.
As anyone that uses these services knows, the killer feature these have over desktop apps is the great collaboration with anyone in the world. Including multiple people editing the same doc/sheet at once.
Another overlooked feature is how the spreadsheets can be shared on so many different levels, from the entire doc, to the sheet, row or column, or even a single cell. And in different formats (csv, html, xml, etc). I’ve got a blog where I embed a few rows from a spreadsheet. Any time I update it, it’s reflected in the other areas immediately. Spreadsheets also have cool features to tap into Google Finance and other google search tools to easily embed live data, like stock info, search info, etc.
It’s only a matter of time before Google integrates adwords based on the content of the document, and then offers more tools, support, and removed ads for a higher fee, similar to what they did with Google Mail for domains.
MGZ
Absolutely impressive………………………………………………………!
I just bought Microsoft stock cuz when I think a stock will go up, it never does… when I KNOW a stock will go down, it always doubles
I guess my biggest gripe with desktop apps is fear of loosing data (changing computers, not taking backups) besides unavailability of data across machines and ofcourse lack of collaboration with other users.
I am using Google Docs for home use (budgets, phone#, todos, idea book). Now only if they would allow users to do PDFs and Images. I have to hack my way through GMail Drive or Web Picasa.
I’m sick and tired of all these wannabe office apps, online or fooline, it makes no difference! Office formats belong to MS and we are losing our patience, the lawyers are waiting for the word!
http://fakestev...er.blogspot.com
For several months I’ve been using google docs on a daily basis with our main developer in Europe and now could never go back to simply emailing word documents.
Not only is the real-time updating among several team members a huge productivity boost, the color-coded “revisions” feature is also very helpful to track who made which changes.
great source for google trand lovers, with this document google will help to improve visibility….
#3: Students are not really using online spreadsheets or docs, yet. I am seeing early adopters, such as myself, introducing and influencing people to use this technology in the group setting. I’ve observed that the tech and web guys are the ones aware of the benefits and the ones who actually harness it. I’m sure there are higher penetration rates in schools such as Stanford, but here at San Diego State, it will be a year or two before this technology is used by the students and accepted by the professors. We’re talking about a 1% penetration rate, if that.
My initial inclination is to say that businesses have embraced this technology more than students, but I have a feeling my perception is skewed. I read TC and follow companies in the valley, early adopter central.
The members of our team (including the techno-laggarts among us) are all about google docs, and especially all about google spreadsheets. Count us among the thousands that find them easy to use and great for sharing info. Our most frequent uses:
- sharing sales pipelines and forecasts (by far our #1 use);
- monitoring and reporting traffic info (web, inbound phone, etc);
- sharing strategic planning docs;
- communicating/updating policies and procedures;
I’ve recently used google’s Presentation tool in team meetings with remote people, and even tried it out in a sales call (to a non-tech audience). It was flawless.
Would just wonder, if they aren’t getting the students, don’t even think about getting the businesses.. we are not talking some Bloomberg terminal here.. we’re talking about some Gmail-like mass-market apps (wannabe)…
You forgot EditGrid, it’s a better product (feature / function-wise) than google spreadsheets
Don’t forget YDrive, it’s a better product (feature / function-wise) than GDrive
(yes, both are vaporware this minute)
Our team switched to Google Spread Sheets and absolutely love it. We can share and access the docs from any computer. Google apps are especially nice us folks that travel as we don’t always want to remote access our desktop just to view, update, or add a new document.
I sound like a broken MP3, but Zoho is the way to go. Their technology is ahead of others. The only thing they’re missing is a partner with large distribution and attention.
I thought Yahoo was going to pick them up, but it didn’t happen.
What about security….
A virus in Docs ? Confidential data stored on Google servers? Data leakage?
Corporates will not jump in if proper security will not be in place. Students can use it.
I find Google Spreadsheet painful, cut and paste is a joke, I can never get the formating to work out… …I have not tried any of the competitors you discuss but I am tolerably happy with EditGrid.
Have you similar numbers on EditGrid’s position in the market.
Jo
“If I do need to collaborate on a document, I do it in an online editor that is also a publishing system (Wordpress).”
Erick, I can certainly imagine how that would work but I’m curious about how that works for you.
In fact, it would be great if you did a rundown of what products you use for different online office/collaboration processes. Even better if you did a quick overview of what members of the Techcrunch crew use.
I second #22.
The small organisation I work for is planning to spend thousands on a new Exchange server. I need ammunition to persuade them why they don’t need to. Databases, mail, office apps… Please, write more.
Whilst the number of people that use these web based documents should not yet worry Mr Gates & Co. There does seem to be an ever increasing trend in people willing to try out these services.
It would be interesting to see what would happen in this new web based documents field, if Microsoft released their own version.
Would they become the biggest player in this sector – or would they be left behind at the starting post by the early front runners.
Whatever Microsoft decides to do over the coming year – this is a new and exciting arena that is going to be huge over the next year.
Microsoft can not afford to miss out on the future growth of web based documents.
If they do they will miss it at their own peril.
Google Docs is sleek. Google Spreadsheets….not used yet
Is tht not the compete is giving estimates for U.S. Traffics alone, this may be well the case in U.S. alone but what abt the scenario happening through out the world… and pity is you have never mentioned these metrics belong to one continent…Any how its upto the techcrunch editors to decide and give a non-biased metrics, even though you guys produced it, it would have better if you could have mentioned some more additional information by mentioning pertains to one particular location.
Is there any data on google Presentation?
Wow, I didn’t realise Google was so far ahead of the competitors. Gdrive, Gspot and offline availability could really put it in a position to seriously challenge MS. Still plenty of time for MS to jump in and clean up.
Yao Ming (#16), thanks for mentioning EditGrid!
Jo (#21), thanks for your kind words. We’ve just fetch the figures from compete and blog about the comparison here:
http://blog.edi...om/archives/365
Vivek (#26), we’ve included our Google Analytics figures as well (representing our global reach), for your reference.
The figures is showing that EditGrid comes second in the online spreadsheet market. We’re not proud of that, however. EditGrid will continue to improve and hopefully some day in the future, we can claim the most popular online spreadsheet from Google.
I think that making a Google Gears version for offline working will boost Google Docs to make a gaint leap! This will help them a lot and I am sure they also know this
Said NO NO NO NO NO to Micro$oft Office!
if it more than doubles in 4 months, it won’t be long before everyone just stays on google 24/7
Surprised that the smaller ones (Zoho etc.) are also flattening out.
Students are not adopting Google docs in any greater numbers during the school year, though they could be contributing to the spike via their summer jobs starting in June.
That’s because Google docs is NOT compatible with pasting stuff in gmail – my biggest piss off about Google.
Kapil T – there is technology around that will “watch” your online spreadsheets and make sure you have a secured copy inside the firewall.
Search for “Google Spreadsheets” and “monitoring”
No reason this can’t work with Editgrid as well as Google – those seem to be the technical and commercial stand-outs
Do Google’s reported numbers include gmail users who chose to open an Excel attachment, for instance, in Google Spreadsheets? This should hardly count as a real unique user.