Everyone with a computer has heard by now that Google has come up with Google Docs & Spreadsheets, a merger of Writely and Google Spreadheets, to compete with Microsoft on the office front. Now everyone is just waiting for a presentation maker. I bet Bill is M-A-D about these puppies!
Applications such as these have become known as Software as a Service (SaaS) in the techie world, if you want to seem like you know what you’re talking about. With the new Google applications, you can share documents by e-mail, edit documents online, have others edit the documents, publish documents (publicly or privately) and post your documents to your blog. This means you and your office can access and edit the information while you’re on the road. I don’t know how many times I’ve e-mailed a document to the office for them to print and mail with attachments. With this, the CSR can access my shared docuements directly.
But Google isn’t the only company looking to get a piece of the action.
- Thinkfree offers a spreadsheet, word processor and presentation maker, as well as a filing system similar to that of the desktop. For $50, you can also get a desktop version of the word processor.
- Zoho offers a similar package, including a spreadsheet word processor and presentation maker, as well as a database, planner, project manager and CRM package (for $12 a month).
- Glide 2.0 will offer a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation maker, calendar, contacts, bookmarks, e-mail, and photo editor. Made specifically for ultra-mobile PC’s, this one is supposed to beat the crap out of the Google version.
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I’m not terribly fond of Micro$oft myself, but I have to give them props. Windows is EVERYWHERE. Sure, techies would love to use linux on all computers, but the problem would be that there would be no “standard” if one larger company didn’t have the most of the market share.
Look at the electronics world, or cell phones. A few large players have historically (some still are) all been too stubborn to agree on a standard for HDTV or wireless communication spefications.
Besides, if we’re concerned with Microsoft having too much market share, why aren’t we concerned about the same issues with Google? Just cause they appear to be nicer?
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