Comments on: Majority Of Americans On Google Docs: “What You Talkin Bout Willis?”

By: Al_G

Al_G — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:18:27 +0000

I’m on my second go-through at the Google Apps. I am finding that MS still has the upper hand on API situations where LOB apps hook directly into MS Apps.

I do think there is a serious potential here for businesses which have a major road warrior component.

OTOH, what I find really weird is I cannot get anyone at Google to talk to me. There is nobody you can call or e-mail and say. “Come on guys sell me.” Tell me why I should dump Microsoft and their Machiavellian licensing strategies. I really want to do this. All you have to do is talk to me.

Nope, so far as I can tell, you have to sign up first and then there may be a way to get someone in sales to talk to you. If anybody here has a contact or knows how to get past their moat, please share it.

As is all I have to go on for information is blogs, posts, and intuition.

By: Web 2.0, version 51 - The Yourdon Report - Blogging the impact of computer-related technology trends, and whatever else catches my interest.

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 05:08:16 +0000

[...] on page 73, I added a bullet point about the recent NPD survey indicating that 73% of Americans had never heard of Google Docs, and that 94% had never used [...]

By: Green G.

Green G. — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 03:36:15 +0000

Mike Wyman is wrong on the error calculation.

Error calculation for the proportion using SaaS office productivity apps as a desktop replacement:

with p = 0.005 (proportion that use as a desktop replacement), q = 0.995 (1-p), n = 586, and t = 1.96 (95% conf. lev.)

=(SQRT(((0.005)*(0.995))/(586))) * (1.96) = 0.0057 = 0.57%

Thus, the error calculation for the percentage of respondents using SaaS office productivity apps as a “desktop replacement” estimate is +/- 0.57%

The error jumps to +/- 4% (at the 95% conf. lev.) **only** if the proportion was 50/50 (i.e., if the proportion of p and q were each .5). However, the proportion under scrutiny is nowhere near 50/50. Not even 1/99. Try .5/99.5

Thus, the margin of error is much lower than +/- 4% for the percentage using SaaS office productivity apps as a “desktop replacement”, in the tenths of a percentage point.

By: Majority of Americans not blindly obsessed with Web 2.0 « ReCrunch

Majority of Americans not blindly obsessed with Web 2.0 « ReCrunch — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:28:57 +0000

[...] [TC] Majority Of Americans On Google Docs: “What You Talkin Bout Willis?”: [...]

By: Glados

Glados — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:27:51 +0000

*whiny Luke Skywalker voice at the end of ESB*
That’s not true! That’s impossible!

I enjoy sites like TechCrunch and all the other sites within the little tech news inner circle. But the people on these sites clearly live in a different world than I do. Seeing all the squirming and justification here when presented with what appears to be reality is high comedy IMO.

By: Opinion Roundup - Online Office Suites | Michael Gracie

Opinion Roundup - Online Office Suites | Michael Gracie — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:11:29 +0000

[...] they’re just unknown (and they won’t be getting much more attention as a result of this post either [...]

By: Ryan Roenigk

Ryan Roenigk — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:59:52 +0000

Consider for a moment that MS Office and Google Docs (and Zoho Office, etc.) aim to solve different problems.

As a consultant with clients and subcontractors across the country, browser-based office apps save time and effort by virtually eliminating version control/ownership issues.

When the task is to collaborate and organize information, browser-based office apps represent a dramatic improvement over the attach-a-doc-via-email routine.

In contrast, when the task is to prepare docs for printing… MS Office apps are designed exactly for that and they make perfect sense.

I will trade formatting control for collaboration when the latter is the goal… but I won’t consider using Gdocs if my goal is to print.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:24:18 +0000

I love the idea of Google Docs, but the execution is a FAR, FAR cry so far from what you can do with desktop products. The spreadsheet functionality (which is what I have used) is extremely limited and VERY slow. My reluctance to adopt Google Docs has everything to do with functionality and usability, and very little to do with any hesitation about using something on the web.

By: Jim Duncan

Jim Duncan — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:31:25 +0000

They should survey middle school and high school students in addition to adults - I’ll bet they would get much different results. Many of the kids I know are very aware of google docs - it makes it much easier to keep school and home work in sync.

By: Overdrive

Overdrive — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:50:30 +0000

The way I see it is that we should delink Google Docs into:
1) Spreadsheets (alternative to MS Excel) and Text Documents (alternative to MS Word)
2) Presentations (alternative to MS Powerpoint)
I’ve extensive used Google Docs for point 1 and frankly have had a good user experience. What was also impressive was the flawless import from MS Excel (multiple worksheets with logos and complex layouts). Team collaboration while working on the same document was great and the entire team was quite releived not to have n number of versions residing with diff ppl and the headache of always retrieving the latest ones.
One point to note however is that we use Spreadsheets for just basic functionality and do not go beyond the commonly used Mathematical and logical functions. For whatever we use MS Excel for, we did not feel restriced using Google Docs.

I haven’t worked on Presentation thus no comments on that.

By: Mike Reynolds

Mike Reynolds — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:37:16 +0000

I think the people most likely to use Google Docs are the hardest kind of people to reach in research surveys. Thus, there is possible under-representation going on here.

By: Jeff Judge

Jeff Judge — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 01:26:40 +0000

This post is silly. I don’t think anyway claimed that the majority of Americans are on Google Docs. Who cares! It’s like gauging what percentage of Americans read TechCrunch.

I’ve been using Google Apps (w/Docs) for two businesses for the past year and like it a lot. I’ve recommended it to a several people, and they all like it. The integration of Mail, Docs, Calendar and Chat is great, and the administration tool is easy to use and does exactly what it needs do. Google Docs does a good job with simple spreadsheet and document collaboration…but if you’re going to spend a good chunk of time working on either I feel it’s best via desktop program.

By: Joe Duck

Joe Duck — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:36:18 +0000

Best post title of the week …

Opportunity indeed. We are a very stubborn animal and take a long time to adopt the obvious. The move away from desktop to mostly online environments is inevitable but it’ll take another 10 years to be complete, and by that time we’ll have new innovations that will be stubbornly resisted - perhaps even by today’s early adopters who are reading here.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:26:53 +0000

EDIT: Ok PC users, running what? Windows 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista? Although I stand by my point regardless, The majority of computer owners don’t fully know how to use them, so I’m not surprised about this statistic. How old was the sample size? Late 50’s or something?

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:20:37 +0000

What percentage of people asked owned a computer and have access to the internet?

Oh and how many of them use it on a regular basis so would know that there was more to the internet than ie6 & msn search?

These facts are pointless without perspective. How about some real news?

By: dotw

dotw — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 21:47:10 +0000

Duncan

Although I do agree that sampling is not always the most accurate research method, a sample size of 600 is completely acceptable.

This is basic market research 101.

By: Jet

Jet — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 21:37:03 +0000

“the disaster that is Vista”

Clueless dickhead

By: Kikerberg

Kikerberg — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 21:10:35 +0000

“There’s little doubt today, at least based on OS X and Linux adoption figures that there is a very real and definite move away from Microsoft, accelerated by the disaster that is Vista.”

Wishful thinking of Mactards.

By: Ballmer

Ballmer — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:31:16 +0000

What you talkin bout Duncan?
Yo, Dunc, someone has been foolin around here

fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

By: T.J.

T.J. — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:38:12 +0000

Meh.
Why would anyone expect online applications to totally replace local ones?
I use Google Docs, but only for shared projects and homework, and it is good for that. But, I would not use it for documents with any significant amount of personal or sensitive information.

By: Mike Wyman

Mike Wyman — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:47:01 +0000

Duncan is right on when he points out that the survey is not significant statistical. A (random) survey sample of 600 has a margin of error of +/- 4%. Anyone who publishes the results of such a survey using tenths of a percent is doing a disservice to their audience.

By: Shan Sinha

Shan Sinha — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:33:25 +0000

I think a lot of people are also forgetting that Microsoft Office is “pretty good”. Sure a lot of people on this blog and commenting on this blog do not like it (some for legitimate reasons, others for not so legitimate reasons).

But hundreds of millions of people actually DO like Office (even if they only use 10% of its features). And for an additional $100 when you buy a PC, as a business, it’s not that substantial of a cost.

As a result, that makes the Google Docs value proposition much more difficult. And we should remember- that it’s not “collaboration” that is Google Docs value proposition. People collaborate on documents with Office Docs every day. They just email attachments, use conversation and track changes to do so. It’s not ideal.. but it works. Is in-place single copy editing really the killer feature that you need web-based authoring, while giving up the ability to email copies, take them on the road with you, have all sorts of templates?

Is single-copy, in place editing really THAT much of a pain point that would make you switch from something that generally comes with the PC you purchase at very low incremental cost anyway?

By: TechConsumer

TechConsumer — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:27:41 +0000

TC News: Googling Yourself Is Popular, Google vs. Microsoft, Google vs. Wikipedia…

TechConsumer News is a feature we started out of a hobby of tracking the latest happenings within the consumer related technology sphere. The goal is to provide a concise, compiled overview of the most intriguing stories from the last few days. Feel fr…

By: Mark Evans

Mark Evans — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:12:14 +0000

I use Google Docs to compliment Office 2004. In particular, Google Docs is a great way to collaborate with other people.

By: Robb Montgomery

Robb Montgomery — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:03:19 +0000

I like the Google docs for collaboration and planning. It is a very simple concept that you have to try - instead of attaching a document and emailing it around (Making lots of copies and stuffing inboxes) you attach people’s e-mail to the document.

It is a new paradigm and will take a while for it to get noticed and adopted to those higher-up the food chain.

For example I just created my first one a few days ago to organize a series of Digital Journalism Seminars in Chicago. (I direct a non-profit group that trains journalists.)

– http://docs.google.com/Doc?doc.....&hl=en

I invited 17 editors and educators to volunteer to help design the program and I could or drop more at any time and control the editing privileges.

Previously I would have used my blog, e-mail and a forum thread to do this and it would have taken longer and required more work to track revisions. This is a great tool. If it will grow - it will grow virally.