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Google Does Spreadsheets
By JLP | June 6, 2006
I saw this announcement over at Lifehacker. Google is going to start allowing people to create, store, edit and share online spreadsheets. This is interesting and is most likely not good news for Microsoft, and ultimately not good news for me since I own shares in Microsoft.
UPDATE: Steve Rubel over at Micro Persuasion has actually tested the new Google Spreadsheets and is a bit disappointed.
Topics: Miscellaneous | 4 Comments »
June 6th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
Microsoft already has their version, Office Live, in the works. But it will be a battle.
June 6th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
Thanks for the headsup. Wonder if it’ll be easier to include and share spreadsheets now in my blog with Google. (I saw the sleek calculators you made using the spreadsheet converter software, but haven’t decided to give up on writing my own just yet. Although I’m probably just in denial about my programming abilities at this point!)
Microsoft might take a hit, but it’ll be a while. In corporate finance, everyone uses Excel. How long will it take for them to switch over to Google, I wonder?
June 6th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
It’s part of the pay-as-you-go, or software-as-a-service paradigm. I write about this often in my blog.
Gates & Co. have been clear about taking MS in this same direction. They know they can’t miss this paradigm, and thus the “Windows Live” and “Office Live” brands. These are more hype then reality at the moment, but don’t underestimate Gates and Microsoft’s war chest of $35 billion in cash. I guess what I’m saying is, don’t count Microsoft out. In fact, they may be ahead of the curve on this in some areas, notably in the business-management software market.
June 6th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
I registered for this this morning. I’m just hanging on, waiting for the e-mail.