“Google Spreadsheets are in the ‘sneak peek’ phase. The two big questions seem to be a) why would anyone want to use a potentially non-secure spreadsheet with limited capabilities, and b) how will we refer to the primitive era before online spreadsheets, which revolutionized life as we know it (which, of course, leads to a related question: what kind of silver jumpsuit is most comfortable when you’re crunching numbers?)?”
Why would anyone (except home user) use such a primitive spreadsheet?
You cannot drag&drop cell. I read that such features are planned for future version.
It’s still an alpha version (Google Labs) and not in “Beta” status (as most Google services).
100 Lines (and A-T) are not enough for most spreadsheets.
Google Spreadsheets is not a replacement for MS Excel or OpenOffice but for home user who want to organize their birthday-party, etc.
Edited 2006-06-19 17:58
“Why would anyone (except home user) use such a primitive spreadsheet?”
Well, you answered your own question. On-line applications would not be used by business for the simple fact of security and all things involved. This is geared towards the home user as are the other Google apps. Picasa for example is for home use, Google Earth is a glorified mapping program which may have other uses, and they do charge for the added business like functionality. Gmail is not a business application by any means, etc.
Does Google Spreadsheet is useful to me?
At home, no… I have OpenOffice
At work, no… I have MS Office XP
At a public computer station… perhaps… I suppose that If I had a ‘spreadsheet’ or ‘csv’ stored on my GMail account I could load it up and start working on it.
I agree that for most corporate users will likely not adopt it because of the Sarbane-Oxley. Why? Because it SOX? (Lame joke I know)
I’d really use something from Google if it were comparable with http://dabbledb.com/utr/
I’ve been using it for several of my home/personal spreadsheets. It’s easy, it’s got all the functionality I need, and it’s available anywhere. On top of that, it loads a hell of a lot faster than OpenOffice.org on my Mac.
I see it as a fantastic rough draft of what could be.
for typical users, google spreadsheet is more than sufficient imo
most typical users i deal with are very primitive in their computer skills
this is great for simple calculations such as someone’s personal budget
it’s handy for lists of things to do
there are many things that a very primitive spreadsheet such as this can do, especially with a vast array of primitive users out there
i think a lot of osnews readers forget how many users are out there that’d very much fall under the “primitive” category
might fill a niche! I am not sure most users even know what a spreadsheet is and those that do probably wonder why they would use something limited. The one benefit is ‘spreadsheet everywhere’ but whether that is enough of a boon remains to be seen. I personally do not use it, or any online type of app really
At the moment, it’s probably a rather limited market, however in the long run it’s possibly rather clever.
Google already sell enterprise search boxes; one suspects that when they’re good enough, they’ll do the same for the spreadsheet and the word processor and presentation software etc. that I’d guess they’ve probably got in the pipeline.
One box, dropped in the company server room, covers most users office needs, no more forced MS upgrade cycle, reduced local data storage, small switch over costs, tie it in with a bit Google search magic and the brand name you can trust, sounds like they might be onto something.
Well said.
I just tried it and it really opens faster than Open Office on Kubuntu Dapper.
I use spreadsheets for my home use only and for me google spreadsheets is good enough. Coupled with google search, I would say this is much better than OpenOffice + Beagle.
Though it is no where close to MS Office 2003 in functionality, but can act as a good substitute for people making minimilistic use of Excel or Openoffice.
I know most of my friends fall in this catefory.
I use Google calender also and find it very fast and convenient.
Surely Google is going in the right direction.
Now that is a GREAT point or points… I didnt think about it in the long term especially considering the enterprise! That truly is a thought.
On the collaborative front, there was some talk of a client-server model for Excel. Anyone know if this is likely to become a reality? That model would work better than this web-based approach, imo.
what is up with this moderation system and why cant I click either the plus or the minus sign…. me confused! I simply state what I thought about the product and I get modded down? Who thought this up?