Google Spreadsheet

Some differing views on Google's new spreadsheet application.

Phil Sim thinks it's a great idea and possibly a killer app, particularly for collaboration.

On the other hand, Jeremy Wright thinks it's all a load of nonsense.

I haven't seen it yet, but where I think it will make a difference is for small offices and homes that don't want to buy MS Office or where they are running older systems that won't play nicely with the latest Office versions.

Where I see Google and others threatening MS Office is by putting out simple and fast software.

Complex software is killing us at the moment: Office, Norton Anti-Virus, Adobe Acrobat and all these other applications are slowing machines and way too complex for the average user.

If Google can put together a basic web-based spreadsheet and word processor package then the reason for 80% of Office purchases vanishes. Particularly in education and workplaces.

It won't kill Office, because Microsoft will still make money selling Office to people that need a word processor that offer mail merge tools and a spreadsheet that can calculate the mean from a range of sub-totals.

What I see a Google Office doing is taking the cream off Microsoft's profits, but not killing it.