Google takes over the world
Google's quiet announcement last week that it has launched an online spreadsheet product is a major shot across the bow of Microsoft and signals a quantum shift in how we will use computers in the years ahead.The product, which you can see at www.google.com/googlespreadsheets/tour1.html, is one in a series of products that Google has launched that intrude on Microsoft’s lucrative turf. Why should you care?
Well, for many folks a spreadsheet and a word processor is a commodity. You launch them, use them to process some data and then close them. Most people don’t particularly care what brand you use (unless you’re a Mac person) as long as they get the job done.
Microsoft, on the other hand, cares a lot. Microsoft Office is the cash cow of the company, generating billions of dollars in revenue. At retail some versions of Microsoft Office cost $500 or more; multiply that times the number of desktop computers in a good-sized office tower and pretty soon you’re talking big money.
Now what happens if you only gave “real” spreadsheets to the finance folks and let everyone else use Web-based spreadsheets when they needed them? If you had a few columns of numbers to add up, you launch your browser, do your work and close it. Nothing to install, nothing to buy.
The hassle for the IT department is eliminated; the cost is dramatically reduced. Now what about word processing? Does everyone need Microsoft Word installed on your hard drive? Or could you launch a Web browser and write a letter just as easily? What about PowerPoint?
Now you can see why Microsoft looks at Google like one of the “Desperate Housewives”.
If you go to www.google.com and click on MORE you can see all of the areas that Google has slipped its fingers into. It’s a pretty impressive list, ranging from mapping to shopping to applications.
And it’s not just Google intruding on Microsoft’s turf.
Dan Bricklin, creator of the VisiCalc spreadsheet, has put out the WikiCalc (www.softwaregarden.com/wkcalpha/) that, knowing Dan, will be even better than Google’s once it gets rolling. It will need to be installed on Wiki servers, however.
Of course, the only missing link is that you need to be online to use Web-based spreadsheets. With free WiFi all over the place that’s not nearly a big problem but it is enough of a factor to keep many people buying office suites and installing them on local hard drives.
Trouble is, Microsoft is facing a challenge there, too, from the excellent open-source alternative called Open Office (www.openoffice.org) a completely free suite of tools that you can download and install on your hard drive that directly competes with Microsoft Office and Works.
The big mama of all of this is if Google comes out with an operating system of sorts, something it claims over and over it is not planning to do. With Linux already out there and not making much of an inroad on consumer desktops that’s probably true; Microsoft owns the consumer desktop for now. But what is likely to happen now more than ever is Microsoft may own the OS but Google takes over from boot on up.
And that will make things very, very interesting.
WEEKLY WEB WONDER: Yahoo Answers is now better than ever. Ask a question and real people answer (most times even the right answer!) Check it out at answers.yahoo.com
James Derk is co-owner of CyberDads, a computer repair firm, and computer columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. His e-mail address is jim@cyberdads.com
<< Home