Google Base - another beta, more rabid speculation
Oct 11, 2006 | 6:03 pm
#16
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Originally Posted by cj001f
Next on my wishlist would be a webbased photoediting suite + digital storehouse.
Oct 11, 2006 | 6:36 pm
#17
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: SF Bay Area
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Posts: 225
Google Spreadsheets/Writely - very collaborative
My group at the office has been using both Writely and Google Spreadsheets for several months, and so far it seems to me that all of the pundits have overlooked their greatest value-add: their collaborative nature.
These won't be a Microsoft-killer anytime soon; implementing feature-rich applications over the internet is pretty hard - partly because of the network effect (all of the actual computing is done far away from where you are, so you're much more dependent on the state of the internet), and partly because of the limitations you inherit when you write software whose presentation depends on universally-applicable, lightweight applications (e.g. your browser) rather than something you can create from scratch.
The current implementations have great basic functionality, but definitely lack some of the more important refinements found in standalone apps. And of course, there's the must-be-connected-to-the-net-to-use-them issue. You can work around that by exporting the file to a local format, working with the local version while you're en route, and re-importing it later - but that's a PITA workaround.
So I think the right approach is not to position these as forklift replacements for MS Word and Excel, but instead to consider what makes them different (dare I say: better).
Do you share or exchange spreadsheets or documents with other people at your company? In your family? How about stuff that isn't in a spreadsheet/doc today, but could be - like simple project plans, events calendars, or task lists? If so, then you're doing this one of two ways: either you're emailing versions of these files around between users, or you're saving them in some central location and working on them remotely. Either way, web-based apps have a major advantage.
In the first case, each time you forward or reply to those emails, you're creating a new copy of that file, potentially with new data. At some point you've got to merge all those files back into a single coherent version. What if your editing process has forked, and two people have made simultaneous-but-different changes to the same element? Now you've got to reconcile all those versions, and figure out which changes supercede.
In the second case, you have a freshness problem - how can you ensure you're working on the freshest data? What happens if someone else makes changes to the source file between the time you open it and the time you save your changes? Or what happens if someone else copies the file to their local drive, makes changes, then copies it back to the source, overwriting some changes you've made in the interim?
How about meetings? Do you ever have a situation where multiple people need to be looking at the same doc/sheet at once, whether or not they're in the same room? Wouldn't it be cool if someone could make some changes on their screen and have those changes automagically appear on all the other versions - so everyone is seeing the same thing? How much time do you spend explaining proposed changes rather than just demonstrating them?
Web-based software solves all that. It sounds like kind of a small thing, but it's really made a significant difference in the way my group interacts, my team's willingness to create and use tools (as opposed to just keeping info in their heads or in local stores), and the time they have to spend on things like status reporting and updating management.
And that's definitely something that you won't find in MS Office. I've used groupware before that has advertised collaboration (Lotus Notes, NetMeeting, Webex, etc.). Most of them work, but none of them are _easy_ the way the Google stuff is. And easy makes a big difference!
These won't be a Microsoft-killer anytime soon; implementing feature-rich applications over the internet is pretty hard - partly because of the network effect (all of the actual computing is done far away from where you are, so you're much more dependent on the state of the internet), and partly because of the limitations you inherit when you write software whose presentation depends on universally-applicable, lightweight applications (e.g. your browser) rather than something you can create from scratch.
The current implementations have great basic functionality, but definitely lack some of the more important refinements found in standalone apps. And of course, there's the must-be-connected-to-the-net-to-use-them issue. You can work around that by exporting the file to a local format, working with the local version while you're en route, and re-importing it later - but that's a PITA workaround.
So I think the right approach is not to position these as forklift replacements for MS Word and Excel, but instead to consider what makes them different (dare I say: better).
Do you share or exchange spreadsheets or documents with other people at your company? In your family? How about stuff that isn't in a spreadsheet/doc today, but could be - like simple project plans, events calendars, or task lists? If so, then you're doing this one of two ways: either you're emailing versions of these files around between users, or you're saving them in some central location and working on them remotely. Either way, web-based apps have a major advantage.
In the first case, each time you forward or reply to those emails, you're creating a new copy of that file, potentially with new data. At some point you've got to merge all those files back into a single coherent version. What if your editing process has forked, and two people have made simultaneous-but-different changes to the same element? Now you've got to reconcile all those versions, and figure out which changes supercede.
In the second case, you have a freshness problem - how can you ensure you're working on the freshest data? What happens if someone else makes changes to the source file between the time you open it and the time you save your changes? Or what happens if someone else copies the file to their local drive, makes changes, then copies it back to the source, overwriting some changes you've made in the interim?
How about meetings? Do you ever have a situation where multiple people need to be looking at the same doc/sheet at once, whether or not they're in the same room? Wouldn't it be cool if someone could make some changes on their screen and have those changes automagically appear on all the other versions - so everyone is seeing the same thing? How much time do you spend explaining proposed changes rather than just demonstrating them?
Web-based software solves all that. It sounds like kind of a small thing, but it's really made a significant difference in the way my group interacts, my team's willingness to create and use tools (as opposed to just keeping info in their heads or in local stores), and the time they have to spend on things like status reporting and updating management.
And that's definitely something that you won't find in MS Office. I've used groupware before that has advertised collaboration (Lotus Notes, NetMeeting, Webex, etc.). Most of them work, but none of them are _easy_ the way the Google stuff is. And easy makes a big difference!
Oct 12, 2006 | 5:44 am
#18
Original Poster
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: May 1999
Posts: 46,817
Excellent points! 
Still...
Google Docs has some real competition
...Zoho and Thinkfree....
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/6273/983/
Mark
Still...
Google Docs has some real competition
...Zoho and Thinkfree....
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/6273/983/
Mark
Last edited by doc; Oct 12, 2006 at 9:46 am