Interesting tidbit from 'eweek' part of the article is posted below ...for more just follow the link.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1972740,00.asp
Google is emerging as the poor man's Microsoft.
The latest evidence of this surfaced June 5, when Google began testing a free, online spreadsheet feature.
This is a spreadsheet for soccer moms, Little League baseball coaches, church bazaar organizers, college students or small businesses of less than 10 employees.
It's for the otherwise curious who haven't used a spreadsheet before, and don't have a lot to lose using a potentially faulty product.
It's not for Fortune 500 companies yet. So is Spreadsheets any kind of competition for the incumbents in this space, namely Microsoft?
The answer seems, for now, to be that Google continues to prove with its actions it's shaping up to be a kind of 7-Eleven of office desktop software, which is likely to pose little immediate impact on Microsoft's cash cows.
Consider, for example, the first reviews of Google Spreadsheets. Bottom line, say commentators, it works. Not spectacular, could use a lot more features, but it works.
Would a large corporation adopt it? Will it win customers from Microsoft? No, say the analysts, but it'll certainly find an audience.
"I don't think a Web-centric spreadsheet offering from Google will be a successful direct competitor to Excel or other traditional spreadsheet tools," said Peter O'Kelly, an analyst with The Burton Group.
The real benefit, analysts say, to Google's free, online renditions of software typically found in offices is to expand the reach of its advertisers, which generate almost all of Google's revenues.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1972740,00.asp
Google is emerging as the poor man's Microsoft.
The latest evidence of this surfaced June 5, when Google began testing a free, online spreadsheet feature.
This is a spreadsheet for soccer moms, Little League baseball coaches, church bazaar organizers, college students or small businesses of less than 10 employees.
It's for the otherwise curious who haven't used a spreadsheet before, and don't have a lot to lose using a potentially faulty product.
It's not for Fortune 500 companies yet. So is Spreadsheets any kind of competition for the incumbents in this space, namely Microsoft?
The answer seems, for now, to be that Google continues to prove with its actions it's shaping up to be a kind of 7-Eleven of office desktop software, which is likely to pose little immediate impact on Microsoft's cash cows.
Consider, for example, the first reviews of Google Spreadsheets. Bottom line, say commentators, it works. Not spectacular, could use a lot more features, but it works.
Would a large corporation adopt it? Will it win customers from Microsoft? No, say the analysts, but it'll certainly find an audience.
"I don't think a Web-centric spreadsheet offering from Google will be a successful direct competitor to Excel or other traditional spreadsheet tools," said Peter O'Kelly, an analyst with The Burton Group.
The real benefit, analysts say, to Google's free, online renditions of software typically found in offices is to expand the reach of its advertisers, which generate almost all of Google's revenues.