Google Spreadsheet fuss beyond belief

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 07 June 2006 20:00

Opinion and Analysis

A few months ago a co-worker sent me a link to an Ajax based online word processor called Ajax Write  with a message about how brilliant it was. I went to the site full of excited expectation and opened the word processor thinking to myself, "Ah Microsoft what are you going to do now?" Within an instant, I knew the answer. Microsoft does not need to do a thing right now about any competition coming from the online crowd.

See our poll Is a Google Spreadsheet a significant threat to Microsoft Excel?

 Leaving aside sluggish online performance, the so-called online word processor did not even have the functionality of Wordpad let alone Word. I pointed this out to my friend and he said, "But that's the future!" Maybe, but it sure isn't the present.

Likewise, all the hype that has been generated about the new Google Spreadsheets is sheer rubbish. All the reports I've received from those "lucky" enough to sample the new product say that it does not even have the basic functionality of the very earliest versions of Excel. Google also owns an Ajax-based word processor called Writely. I wouldn't expect too much from that product in a hurry either.

Heck, word processors and spreadsheets are complex applications. They're hard enough to build for the desktop let alone the online space. Just ask Microsoft or, if you don't believe them, ask the Open Office crowd. Office productivity applications like Word and Excel and their open source competitors are the product of years of iterative development. And still we grumble about how imperfect they are.

Despite all of this, as soon as Google releases a rudimentary - some might even call it experimental - online spreadsheet, the world goes stir crazy. The media jumps on it and calls it the "Excel killer". One can imagine company book keepers and financial strategists taking a cursory look at Google Spreadsheets with a smirk and saying to themselves: "They're just kidding, right?"