Google launches Free Online Office

[W1nTry]

This is a very interesting time we live in, have a read:

Google to launch online spreadsheet

Attack on Vole Hill


By Peter Sbarski: Tuesday 06 June 2006, 12:46

 GOOGLE IS POSED to launch a free online spreadsheet today.
Seen as a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Excel, Google’s effort is bound to create a lot of waves in and around Redmond – regardless of whether Microsoft is ready for it or not – and, yet again, generate a lot more positive press for itself.

Google claims that its ‘Excel killer’, will allow multiple users to share and edit spreadsheets in real-time. It says that there is no limit to the number of people with whom one can share his or her spreadsheet.

Users will be able to create new spreadsheets from scratch and import existing ones from CVS and XLS files. Other features include automatic saving, sorting and searching. Users will be able to print by first exporting to HTML.

Charting and macros are the two major features that are not going to be included.

Initially Google Spreadsheet will only be accessible to a small group of people on first-come, first-served basis. Bear in mind that these poor folks will face "grave" limitations. They are not going to be allowed to create more than 100 spreadsheets or import files bigger than 400kb.

If you are interested you can register here.

You can also walk a small tour of Google Spreadsheet here and check out help center here.

We guess a Google online word processor is just be around the corner. µ

[disciple]

hmm.. we moved from a network model , with dumb terminals and a mainframe, to a personal computer with the local applications, now gradually, we goin back to the network model...

though, still doh see companies migrating their office suites to one online.. security, and the integrity of your data..
will google be directin ads to you via your content? ( like gmail)

( many apps, however, are run via a web interface, albeit from a server on the company network... )

[TrinireturnofGamez]

 surely there will be adds or it won't be ''free''... 
 
 0mG G00Gl3 T/\K3 ov3r Teh W0rl!

[Beomagi]

Make that a network model with a local inefficient interpreter (javascript) - so it's not a dumb terminal, but a smart terminal with a thought-process-deficiency - or "retarded terminal"
MS is also doing an online office thing.

I havent used MS office for personal use in almost 2 years. Open office has me. I still see the need for MS office though as far as companies go. It's just easier for IT to deploy/manage.

this can make sharing tabulated data pretty easy for us (i.e. forum users in general)

google's ads are usually small one line text snippets.

[TriniXaeno]

Yeah open office pwns.

2.0 is pretty solid.

Hardly see Google replacing that anytime soon.

Maybe OpenOffice should be promoted more. A lot of people still don't know it exists.

That is where Google will wtfpwn them. Their name is ubiquitous.

[disciple]

boy.. open office till i die,too,  yes ( or till somethin better comes out)

in as much as MS decries it, piracy is what led it to world dominance..  pirated copies of MS Office made it the defacto standard .

company would start off small, with pirated software, then  eventually , after makin some money, decides to go legit ( most of the time)

but back to the topic.. just cuz is google doh mean it gonna succeed eh..  google talk, anyone?

 and the idea of an online office suite isn't new.. in the earlier days of the dot com bubble, i seem to recall  ThinkFree office.

java based.. more performance issues that a  cortina wit a cng engine



yes trini .. i know there will be ads, but what i said was will they be directed ads? .. i.e. analysing your content...... maccoin your spreadsheet quotin depreciation of computers, and use that  to advertise for Dell, for example

innocuous for some, but i would be extremely wary of such with let's say, a company's end of year financial docs



baego, i seem to remember a month aback, Sun an Google havin some cross promotion ( Sun being the donator of the open office source code, for those who doh kno)  but i cah recall if open office was included. doubt it tho

[Beomagi]

innocuous for some, but i would be extremely wary of such with let's say, a company's end of year financial docs

I think it goes without saying that no company would use an online app for financial material.

This is to target consumers.

[W1nTry]

Adds?? what adds???


You guys have to appreciate that this idea (which wil be implemented before the MS version) has GREAT potential and could replace MS Office. Now I use Open Office myself (sometimes) doh get me wrong, but unless you buying Star Office (the retail supported version of Open Office) ppl in the corporate world won't really consider it as the main thing Office solution b/c of support or lack thereof. Who do you call when something goes wrong? who is 'certified' to deal with a problem in Open Office? it's like that argument of Linux vs. Windows. Sure Linux is great but just can't match the timely response MS has with their product (meaning you can call an 'expert' not patching here ppl). Now envision you are a small office or even a fairly large operation. You have certain ppl using particular office apps and others not. Not everyone will use visio or frontpage but most will use Word and maybe Outlook. Now pay up those licensing fees PER desk and your cost escalates pretty fast. But say instead you use an online office solution for the odd time you need to do up a spreadsheet or each time you need to do up a visio type diagram, and hopefully at a reasonable price (say a few cents per xls or doc) and there you have a cheap and dirty BUT EASY solution. I think this is a move in the right direction (otherwise google wouldn't do it). They know what they're doing and well when your stock stands at a behemoth 300+ USD per share, that says ppl think you know what you're doing too.

Here's another situation. Suppose they come out with a monthly subscription for X # of users per month. Your office is 25 ppl but only 15 use excel, 20 use word and another 10 use say powerpoint. You pay for 15 concurrent connections of each. Since not eveyone may be using the app at the same time it could work out for you, saving TONNES of money. It's just a thought on a pricing system as I doubt this will be free forever. As for the security issue Trini I believe highlighted, I am sure SSH will come in to play there so no biggy. One more thing about this, is that you can share online a spreadsheet simultaneously and in realtime! Think of it, you're in a board meeting and have consultants around the world all looking at the same sheet crunching some numbers. As 1 dept in 1 country adds their figures everyone sees it immediately and can comment in your skype conference call. Any party can modify in turn and the end product is say the final figures for your next budget. Export and save to all, DONE. No hassle. This is innovation iwmc, look for google's online office to take off once it's launched.

[disciple]

innocuous for some, but i would be extremely wary of such with let's say, a company's end of year financial docs

I think it goes without saying that no company would use an online app for financial material.

This is to target consumers.

nah, i think very small businesses may use it .... just cuz it there, it free and they lookin to cut costs..   also, never underestimate the dependability of stupidity..   if the CIA coudl misplace laptops with sensitive data, who's Joe Blow accountant, looking to see what all the buzz over google spreadheet about? lol




but  eventually MS goin there,as wintry pointed out, with their Live rebranding scheme.. is it the next version after 2007? cah remember .. Bill sent out memo an ting; the paradigm has shifted to the net




with regards to Open Office not being taken seriously by corporations, that's incorrect

 

Federally owned Banco do Brasil has completed the migration of all its Windows XP computers to the OpenOffice.org open source suite, reported local tech service Computerworld.

The migration involved 35,000 PCs, and Banco do Brasil now aims to migrate another 30,000 computers that use the OS/2 operating system. These should all migrate to the OpenOffice.org system by year-end.

Brazil was one of the first countries in the region to adopt a policy of migration to open source at the government level, prompting multinationals to increase development in this area.

just one example.. check out open office's front page for more examples.. on the right..


there is a directory of commercial support providers, too.. so a company can purchase support and have trained expert technicians available 24/7.. just like MS.you can call them.....   in fact, you can get in touch with the programmer directly. unlike MS.. if he not taking you on, or tellin you 'wait till next version', you can rewrite it yourself.. unlike MS       

( it's not a far stretch of the imagination to have a programmer on staff, especially if you a big corporation)

Red Hat, Novell and others offer support packages in much the same manner, and there are certifications for individuals, and an ecosystem of linux solution providers..so you can get a timely response


yes the OS is available for free download, with forum-only support, but like Nasa, the govt of France, and various city  governments and business of all sizes all over the world,  a company can to decide on a particular vendor, solution  and support system ( i.e. do we outsource the support, train our own people, hire new ones ) they gonna go with..   

 one doesn't just install linux, or open office and just expect bram, we up an runnin..
in just the same manner as soon as dell deliver the boxes and you plug them in, active directory gonna be runnin, win2k3 server admins appear like magic and you productive in .05 seconds



all in all, i don;t think this whole online push gonna work..noveltywise, yeh.. but at the end of the day.. is it filling a need? yes it good for collaboration, but how often yuh gonna need to collaborate, and does an overwhelming majority need to?

but i could be wrong it may change the way we compute.. LOL

[W1nTry]

They have an online word processor too, have a look here
Just to briefly touch its capabilities:
Same sharing as the spreadsheet to multiple recipients
Upload docs to Blogs instantly
RSS feeds for your DOC <--dis neat
Save to doc or pdf (open office users will know about this)
Revision comparisons<--lemme expand here, you can compare the document last save to the present and it will highlight the changes you made
I am sure there are more but these are the interesting ones that well MS Word doh do (at least not EASILY)

[TinyGrasshopper]

So they've got a word processor, spreadsheet, and a pim(email+calendar loosely integrated). sounds like office to me.

google calendar doesn't have ads either which is awesome. as for the privacy concerns if it had ads, people seem to be totally okay with google 'reading' our email so this would be no different. The real privacy concern is that you save the file to Google's servers. I haven't used it so I'm not sure validated that privacy claim is.

From the tour on the site it only supports xls and csv. wham to odf? they stikkin, steups.

Like most of these web apps, it can only hope to and really intends to only implement the features that most everyone would need, going for simplicity. I doubt that it would meet the needs of many businesses. In that sense a desktop program like openoffice will always be better. But for many individuals it'll be just fine. Same ting with something like onilne email like Gmail or Google Calendar. For someone who needs basic calendar functionality like me Google Calendar is great.

As for openoffice support the answer was in the question. Just pay for a boxed version of staroffice. The value doesn't lie in the software but in the support. Same thing with something like SuSE Linux. Novell is renowned for the amazing boxed manuals alone.

EDIT: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060607-7005.html Apparently it's about open formats not aobut taking down Microsoft. Again Google is proving how cool they are. Hopefully the odf support in Google Spreadsheets is coming soon.

[W1nTry]

Important Update:

Google office gets 'Powerpoint'

Our cup runneth over

By Nick Farrell: Wednesday 18 April 2007, 08:24
Click here to find out more!
WHILE BOFFINS have dismissed Powerpoint presentations as Powerpintless and a waste of , search engine outfit Google wants to use a clone of it to bury Microsoft Office.

According to Business Week, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt says his outfit will offer a Powerpoint style of software to run with its online version of Office.

Google already offers e-mail, word processing and spreadsheet programs, and other tools.

So far the company is not releasing many more details about its new presentation software, though product manager Rajen Sheth said users would be able to store documents online and let anyone with a free Google account view the slides.

There will be two versions of the presentation software which will be released in a few months. A "Premier" version with extra storage will cost $50 per year. Schmidt admitted his Powerpoint software did not have all the functionality of Microsoft Office, but was a "better fit" to how people use the Web.

There could be a bit more coming from Google in this area. The outfit just bought Tonic Systems which specialises in collaborative presentation software.

Google is continuing its movement to dominate the world...