EightBlack.

Hot off the press at the WSJ (Wall Street Journal).

Google announces that this week it launches it’s long awaited competitor to Excel.

Called Google Spreadsheet (what else?) it adds to Google’s arsenal of office based products.

You’ll remember back earlier this year that Google purchased Writely, a web based word processor.

And this from the Associated Press:

Google also wants more time to smooth out any possible kinks and develop more features, said Jonathan Rochelle, the product manager of the new application.

[Google] planned to begin accepting sign-ups for the spreadsheet at 9 a.m. EDT Tuesday through the “labs” section of its Web site. Rochelle wouldn’t specify how many people will be granted access to the spreadsheet application.

Philipp Lenssen from Google Blogoscoped did some digging on Google and found the Google Spreadsheet tour.

Some interesting features:

Create basic spreadsheets from scratch.
You can start from scratch and do all the basics, including changing the number format, sorting by columns, and adding formulas.

Upload your spreadsheet files.
Upload spreadsheets or worksheets from CSV or XLS format – all your formulas and formatting will come across intact.

Familiar desktop feel makes editing a breeze.
Just click the toolbar buttons to bold, underline, change the font, change the cell background color and more. (…)

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.

No wonder Google is keeping Bill Gates awake at night.

With an ever increasing lead in search, Google has laid down the gauntlet and entered Microsoft’s river of gold.

More to the point, unlike Microsoft, Google intends to give Google spreadsheet away.

While there might be a slight panic within a few corridors at MS, there’s probably a long way to go before the wrist slashing needs to start.

For one, MS Office is firmly entrenched in the majority of corporate IT departments worldwide.

MS Excel is the dominant application and will remain so for a long time.

The challenge is the consumer space.

And that’s exactly where Google want to focus first.
Google’s aim is crystal clear. It wants to own your desktop, mobile, car and home.

Search is just the glue.

The add on’s like Google Spreadsheet are just the beginning.

Just wait until they get into the mobile space.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 6th, 2006 at 11:43 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.