|
Google Unveils On-Line Spreadsheet Service
Published: June 7, 2006
by Alex Woodie
Google this week unveiled its latest assault on Microsoft's core business: Google Spreadsheets. The new service allows users to work on spreadsheets delivered through a Web browser, and store their spreadsheets on Google's servers. Perhaps most important of all, it's free.
Google is touting the collaboration capabilities of its new spreadsheet offering. Users can make changes to spreadsheets in real-time, share those changes with other users, and even chat with them through an integrated instant messaging facility, the company says.
Users can also import their existing spreadsheets into Google Spreadsheets. This capability is squarely targeted at Excel, Microsoft's popular spreadsheet program which retails for about $250.
The new spreadsheet service is only available as a limited beta test at this point. Nonetheless, it has generated tremendous excitement across the Web, as users flock to try out the latest gizmo from the Mountain View, California, company. Soon after announcing the new offering, the Google Spreadsheet download page at spreadsheets.google.com went down from the volume of traffic gridlocked there.
A similar level of excitement was generated earlier this year when Google unveiled Google Desktop, a service that lets users search their desktop and pull up files, such as e-mails, photos, or Web pages. That offering has graduated from the limited-beta stage at Google Lab to become a full-fledged beta product available for download and use at desktop.google.com.
|
