Google Spreadsheets

[DanS]

It's possible that they will release it out of Google Labs without ads. Google doesn't necessarily need to make money on it, if they can make money on your use of other programs with which it is integrated.

This seems like a good strategy by Google. After it's all said and done, Google may not spend much money developing this and Writely, but a small investment may necessitate a large investment on M$'s part to defend its turf.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Asher
That's because it's a Google Labs project right now, not a commercial page.

Google makes its money by ads, you're a fool if you don't think Google Spreadsheet will have ads when it's released like Google.com, gmail, etc.

What DanS said. It could easily be a loss leader.

[Asher]

I don't think spreadsheets are inherently integrated with their other products.

It will have ads, it's not a loss-leader because it doesn't necessarily promote the use of other Google services -- it's a simple spreadsheet...

[Harry Tuttle]

Yeah but people will be using Google's site which facilitates using other Google services. It's complimentary.

[Kuciwalker]

I don't think targeted ads would work as well with spreadsheets as with searches, either.

[Jon Miller]

Maybe they will surprise me, but on casual inspection I don't see the symmetry.

JM

[Asher]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
Yeah but people will be using Google's site which facilitates using other Google services. It's complimentary.

I don't see how using Google Spreadsheet facilitates using other Google Services any more than using Excel does. Care to enlighten me?

The only thing I can possibly see is that to invite people to collaborate, they need a Google Account.

[DanS]

Office is M$ biggest cash cash cow and it is a monopoly. The prospect of Office losing its monopoly, or of M$ having to spend money to defend the product will help cut the value of M$ stock down to size. This investment is probably only costing Google in the small tens of millions of dollars, but these are today's results.

MSFT -1.64% (loss of $3.7 billion in market capitalization)
GOOG +4.15% (gain of $4.9 billion in market capitalization)

Jujitsu.

[VetLegion]

Do we know that the market reaction is to this news in particular, not something else?

[DanS]

It's the only big news today.

[Solver]

See, the popularity of Google. In truth, OpenOffice is already a match for MS Office, it just doesn't have the name of Google on it. Asher, before you criticize OpenOffice, consider the fact that really, most users only need the basic functionality of Word/Excel/PowerPoint, and OpenOffice really does handle that. I myself believe it to still be lacking in certain areas, but it certainly performs all the basic functions and some of the more advanced ones just as well. But no, once Google does something, that immediately threatens MS more just because it's Google.

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by Asher

I don't see how using Google Spreadsheet facilitates using other Google Services any more than using Excel does. Care to enlighten me?

The only thing I can possibly see is that to invite people to collaborate, they need a Google Account.

Well, I haven't seen anything but a Sneak Peek, but seeing as how the Google Calendar, Chat, and Gmail are integrated I would surmise that the spreadsheet would be connected in the same fashion. From the Sneak Peek:

*Sharing spreadsheets
Choose who can access your spreadsheets.
Just enter the email addresses of the people you want to share a given document, and then send them a message.

*Share documents instantly.
People with whom you share a given spreadsheet can access it as soon as they sign in.

*Edit with others in real time.
Multiple people can edit or view your spreadsheet at the same time as you - their names will appear in an on-screen chat window.

What about people with different platforms? If they didn't have excel they could just pop on google and use the spreadsheet.

All I'm saying is that it's easily accessible over the net and will probably be integrated with other Google applications. It's ease of use.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Solver
See, the popularity of Google. In truth, OpenOffice is already a match for MS Office, it just doesn't have the name of Google on it. Asher, before you criticize OpenOffice, consider the fact that really, most users only need the basic functionality of Word/Excel/PowerPoint, and OpenOffice really does handle that. I myself believe it to still be lacking in certain areas, but it certainly performs all the basic functions and some of the more advanced ones just as well. But no, once Google does something, that immediately threatens MS more just because it's Google.

OpenOffice isn't a match for Office because it only matches basic functionality that:
(1) corporations are not happy with
(2) many students are not happy with

Hell, didn't they launch 1.0 without WordCount? That shows you just how screwed up their priorities are.

We have Linux boxes at school but due to enormous amounts of complaints, OpenOffice was replaced with Office via WINE.

OpenOffice is a bloaty mess, it's ugly, it's slow as hell, its interface is now officially obsolete, and it's glacial in development speed.

[Solver]

I'm pretty sure version 1 had Word Count.

From what I see, most people use, in Word, paragraph/character formatting, simple tables, search and replace. That's it. Not stuff like mail merge, styles, automatic tables of content, etc.

Thankfully, though, version 2 is faster. Version 1 was slow as hell, yeah. It would take frakking forever to just launch.

[Asher]

From what I see, most people use, in Word, paragraph/character formatting, simple tables, search and replace. That's it. Not stuff like mail merge, styles, automatic tables of content, etc.

Wordpad...?