Comments on: Google Spreadsheet http://labnotes.org/2006/06/06/google-spreadsheet/ Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:32:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Assaf http://labnotes.org/2006/06/06/google-spreadsheet/comment-page-1/#comment-3800 Assaf Wed, 07 Jun 2006 20:43:24 +0000 http://blog.labnotes.org/2006/06/06/google-spreadsheet/#comment-3800 Apparently I wasn't clear on the context, so I updated the post to clarify: Excel is a full featured product that’s impossible to duplicate on the Web. I don’t see any company doing that, and I don’t see any immediate threat to Excel. MS Office is a different story. It’s a suite because most people won’t buy the individual pieces, they just don’t need all these applications all the time. But once everybody uses it, the killer app for buying (or “borrowing”) MS Office is its import/export capability. Documents, spreadsheets and presentations have more value when you can share them with others. Web 2.0 is disrupting this power balance. MS Office is a walled garden approach to software, and Web 2.0 services are opening it up. They don’t disrupt the 20% of the market that needs the category leader, Excel being one of them. But it disrupts the 80% of the occassional use market. But look at the upside. The Web office will seriously curtail piracy of Microsoft products, better than they could ever hope for. Apparently I wasn’t clear on the context, so I updated the post to clarify:

Excel is a full featured product that’s impossible to duplicate on the Web. I don’t see any company doing that, and I don’t see any immediate threat to Excel.

MS Office is a different story. It’s a suite because most people won’t buy the individual pieces, they just don’t need all these applications all the time. But once everybody uses it, the killer app for buying (or “borrowing”) MS Office is its import/export capability. Documents, spreadsheets and presentations have more value when you can share them with others.

Web 2.0 is disrupting this power balance. MS Office is a walled garden approach to software, and Web 2.0 services are opening it up. They don’t disrupt the 20% of the market that needs the category leader, Excel being one of them. But it disrupts the 80% of the occassional use market.

But look at the upside. The Web office will seriously curtail piracy of Microsoft products, better than they could ever hope for.

]]> By: saurab http://labnotes.org/2006/06/06/google-spreadsheet/comment-page-1/#comment-3783 saurab Wed, 07 Jun 2006 09:48:31 +0000 http://blog.labnotes.org/2006/06/06/google-spreadsheet/#comment-3783 guess this is not about competing directly with microsoft excel, but more about a quick online spreadsheet collaboration tool that doesnt require downloading any software, doesnt require that you email spreadsheets back and forth because you can work on them together with your project team members, doesnt involve any licensing issues, can work from any computer ... even those that dont have a spreadsheet app installed, and best of all would probably be integrated with other services such as google calendar (let's hope so) as it rolls out of beta. this is a complementary service rather than a competitive offering. It still isnt feature complete... for instance it doesnt have charting capabilities, but I guess they have that on their list of things to do. over all, not a bad product at all. guess this is not about competing directly with microsoft excel, but more about a quick online spreadsheet collaboration tool that doesnt require downloading any software, doesnt require that you email spreadsheets back and forth because you can work on them together with your project team members, doesnt involve any licensing issues, can work from any computer … even those that dont have a spreadsheet app installed, and best of all would probably be integrated with other services such as google calendar (let’s hope so) as it rolls out of beta.

this is a complementary service rather than a competitive offering. It still isnt feature complete… for instance it doesnt have charting capabilities, but I guess they have that on their list of things to do.

over all, not a bad product at all.

]]> By: IT|Redux » What Google Spreadsheets Means http://labnotes.org/2006/06/06/google-spreadsheet/comment-page-1/#comment-3752 IT|Redux » What Google Spreadsheets Means Tue, 06 Jun 2006 19:44:18 +0000 http://blog.labnotes.org/2006/06/06/google-spreadsheet/#comment-3752 [...] Today, the blogosphere is buzzing about the release of Google Spreadsheets, an Office 2.0 alternative to Microsoft Excel. Assaf Arkin and Nick Carr have great articles on the subject. They both share the same idea: Google Spreadsheets is not a replacement for Microsoft Excel, it’s a complement. Even though they both have valid points, I tend to disagree with their conclusions. [...] [...] Today, the blogosphere is buzzing about the release of Google Spreadsheets, an Office 2.0 alternative to Microsoft Excel. Assaf Arkin and Nick Carr have great articles on the subject. They both share the same idea: Google Spreadsheets is not a replacement for Microsoft Excel, it’s a complement. Even though they both have valid points, I tend to disagree with their conclusions. [...]

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