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Google Office To Get an API
Orange Crush writes, "Google's new office applications, Docs & Spreadsheets, will provide APIs for custom apps. Johnathan Rochelle, project manager: 'We definitely want to build out APIs, especially for the spreadsheets side, as spreadsheets are more data-oriented, but maybe also for the word processor. People will be able to do mashups with our tools for other things, and not be stuck behind our dev cycle for everything they want. If I've already got data somewhere you can't really rely on manual cut-and-paste to make it collaborative. Imagine pulling data from any application you've already got in use... you get that data over to the hosted app, make it collaborative, then bring it back... that's what we'd like to enable at some point.'" Eating their own dogfood: Rochelle said that "Everybody in [Google] is using the tool" already.
"We definitely want to build out APIs, especially for the spreadsheets side, as spreadsheets are more data-oriented, but maybe also for he word processor," Google product manager Jonathan Rochelle said.
Repeat after me... Spellcheck does not replace good editing. Spellcheck does not replace good editing.
what the heck is an api for the non-nerds out there?
I did a quicky review of Google's Spreadsheet when they released it six months ago. Since then, it would appear that Google has fixed some of my complaints. In particular:
:(
1. Cell borders have been added.
Umm... that's all I've got.
Everything else still appears to be an issue, including the calculation errors I spotted. And while Cell Borders have been added, there is no way to apply different styles. I'm pleased to see that Google is adding a new API for their "Office Suite", but they really need to fix some of these issues before they can be taken seriously.
Also, the continuing lack of charting is really sticking out. Data visualization is an important feature in a spreadsheet, whether you're preparing a market analysis or just balancing your household budget. The fact that plenty of web technologies exist to accomplish charting (SVG, round trip images, Flash, Java, etc.) only makes it stick out that much more. Now the API might allow external coders to help in this area, but so far I'm still not impressed.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I was reading a article on zdnet a couple days ago about how the problem of Web2.0 and Web2.0 storing its data online was that you couldn't use this data when you weren't connected to the internet. Here's the answer: a small app that reads and writes using this API, but can store to your computer for later online storage when reconnected to the internet. I can't wait till it comes to Linux.
As I mentioned on an earlier Google Office thread, the word processor doesn't permit the kind of page formatting options that are an absolute necessity for a professional writer. Specifically, you can't define front-page headers, subsequent headers, or 8.5x11 inch page sizes with 1 inch margins.
Without those features, it's still OK, but no writer will use it as their word processor of choice.
Hooray for Google allowing disallusioned bloggers to create mashups of other disallusioned bloggers using data from Google Spreadsheets into a Google Map where you can click on each user and write a message to them through an API to Blogger while simultaneously overlaying sixteen YouTube videoes while embedding a chat control to GTalk and Gmail and embedding a moon phase widget in your Google Pages tray bar along with a world clock showing the time in thirty-seven timezones simultaneously while using Google Sets to locate good stocks to show charts through Google Finanance in an expandable IFrame using Google UI Controls and integrating Google Search and Google News to be tied into the page so it automatically searches Google whenever you click on any word on the page and if you click on a non-alphanumeric it searches through Google Code Search and every image will be linked to Google Image Search and Google Image Labeler.
And will I get to Google the beans?
Take a look at the top of the screen. See where it says "news for nerds"? Do you want that to be true, or don't you?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
direct hooks between Google Office and my word processor of choice. As soon as Google Office respects .odt enough so that it can keep track of all changes people make (even if the web interface isn't yet able to let you use all of .odt), you should be able to get the collaborative benefits of Google Office along with all the benefits of having a local office app.
Think: all open standard word procesors could instantly have the best collaboration system on the planet (i.e. real time co-editing, with backups and rollbacks possible) with minimal coding effort.
Expected time to finish is 1 hour and 60 minutes.
Your phrasing suggests that Google does currently sell advertisers access to gmail content. That's not the case; you may wish to be more clear about your accusations.
The article mentions a Google employee who uses a traditional office product while commuting, and then gets into the office and (ironically) switches to the Google product. So how does he merge the changes he made while on the road with the changes others may have made in the office? That would be a great feature to have built in for a product with such a strong collaboration focus, but I don't think they have it.
"Eating their own dogfood: Rochelle said that "Everybody in [Google] is using the tool" already."
I'm just an aerospace engineer and not a programmer/scientist....but I thought Google hired the best of the best brightest minds in the country. True I use Matlab for most analysis and Fortran and C for most simulations, but when I want to "play" with a snippet of data a bit and do some simple plots, Excel kicks butt. I feel sorry for them if all those PhDs can't even graph with their spreadsheets anymore. I can understand them not wanting to pay Microsoft but geeze, at least throw them oocalc.
Eating their own dogfood: Rochelle said that "Everybody in [Google] is using the tool" already.
Now I understand why the CFO paid 1.6bn for GooTube!
...getting sick of the term "mashup"?
Given how feature-incomplete the Google Office suite is in comparison to any desktop application, I don't see why this is even important. If this was some no-name web application, it wouldn't be a headline. The amount of hype being generated over the ability to run applications inside your browser through a mess of client side and server side interaction is absurd.
What is clear is we need a better platform for developing these sorts of applications, but AJAX and DHTML fails to impress me.
The online coffee making market will be the only thing still owned my Microsoft with their 'Vista Machiato' OS version.
But every drinker must be licensed separately.
Does it run in Emacs?
It's about time their office include an Animal Protection Institute for their code monkeys.
The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up.
Well, among other things, I work at Google. And everything about Google's culture of data-handling is that privacy is taken very seriously, even internally. Even as an employee here, I couldn't just go and read your gmail (or search logs, or writely docs, or anything else) myself; I don't have access to it, and would need to make a very strong case for a legitimate need in order to get access to it. Selling it to an outside party would be completely antithetical to the entire way I've seen the company behave.
But let's focus on the "among other things", so you don't have to take my word for it. I think that even if you assume Google to be evil, the logistics of them being malicious here wouldn't really work out.
It's pretty hard to both 1) try to sell a product to outside entities and 2) keep the availability of that product secret. How exactly would Google go about offering your data up for sale without disclosing that it's doing so? And if such deals were somehow arranged, for how long exactly do you think that every advertiser would keep it secret? As with most conspiracy theories, I think this just involves too many moving parts to really be stable.
And even if we assume that Google has both the willingness and the means to make such sales in secret, I don't really see the motive for doing so. Why would advertisers want your email? To extract relevant information to run ads against it... the way that Google already does for them, to the best of their considerable ability, without any human eyes being involved? And why would Google risk the damage to their reputation associated with doing this? They're not exactly hurting for above-board income, you know.
I'm fairly paranoid about the privacy of my own data, so I can see why you'd have hesitation about handing yours over to anyone else. But I don't think that the particular threat being described is especially realistic.
(If it wasn't obvious, I'm not speaking for Google in any official capacity, I'm just talking about how their culture looks from the inside. The "do no evil" thing is not just marketing schtick, it really is something that people talk about and take seriously all the time.)
While I wouldn't be surprised if Google eventually sells the platform, at substantial cost, for enterprise clients, right now they aren't selling you anything, their offering to give you the service.
They sell access to people's Gmail? Where do I sign? :D
Well, I think we can logically say that if my (or anyone else's information) was being sold to advertisers I would be getting tons of spam from them and Google would set the spam filters to let all the adverts through. I guess another possibility would be that they could sell it just for informational purposes to the advertisers so they know what people want in a product but even then how do you know that your ISP isn't doing the same thing selling emails. Also, they could easily keep a list of every site that you visited and sell that. If you are afraid that people might get information you don't want them to, unplug your computer and your phone, lock your doors and windows, shut your blinds, go into your basement, and sit in a dark corner with a tinfoil hat. Of course you will soon realize even that is not enough. You then need to destroy all records of your existence. When you are sure all the information is gone, down to the last hair that flew out onto the highway, then you need to bring everyone, who ever more than glanced at you, to your house. When you and everyone else are inside, burn the house to the ground.
Damn, post looks like crap. All the line breaks are gone.
If storage is becoming more net-centric, what really matters is having the most ways possible to access your data. People don't really need the desktop software features. I'd gladly give away 90% of them if it was just easier to collaborate and be able to find our stuff when we need it.
To hell with expensive collaboration tools that require my own server. First there was eroom, then the much cheaper 37 signals, and now the free google. Long live google.
someone in India is selling your financial information?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Yes it's nice that google are providing yet another API, but I'm really put off by the writely new skin. It's less appealing it use.
I seem to remember a little product called Lotus Notes by Ray Ozzie, who has now become the head of Microsoft. Their special little replication concept seemed to endear itself to a lot of people.
The key is to bundle them all together in an easy to use interface. Perhaps even a desktop client. Heck, with their resources, they could probably wrap it all up into that Google Operating System everyone was all giddy about a while back. Right now, everything (with the exception of the existing Google Apps for Your Domain suite) is pretty spread out as separate products. If they could tie all of these together and make collaboration and integration a little better, it would be the ultimate groupware suite. Just throw in an accounting program (Google Financials?) and you're all set. Charge monthly/yearly fees for companies/domains that go over the maximum storage (perhaps offer a combined storage limit for all of the products put together?) or need more users/groups.
-- Stu
/. ID under 2,000. I feel old now.
What a sad, confused little man you must be here.
argumentum ad fallacium: Fallacy of defining a fallacy which allows one to dismiss the argument in question.
Last time I checked, you could set up your Google spreadsheets for collaboration, but there was no version control, no way to find out who changed what when, and to revert changes. Has that since been added? Without it, I find collaboration impossible.
It's amazing they can put it on a webpage and it all works flawlessly, but the one drawback of their spreadsheet deal is that it only goes up to 100 entries- I bet for most tasks that's fine but what about folks w/ more rows?
Behold the power of posting at Slashdot!
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
Even as an employee here, I couldn't just go and read your gmail (or search logs, or writely docs, or anything else) myself; I don't have access to it, and would need to make a very strong case for a legitimate need in order to get access to it.
Erm. I bloody well hope that's the case. Actually, I bloody well hope no person at Google reads my mail (I use your service), there is no legitimate need for anybody to do so. I'm more or less fine with fairly stupid algorithms scanning my mail to determine which ads to show, but I don't want any humans to read it and if that's what you guys do I will cancel my account on the spot. It's probably illegal at least for the German Google to do it, incidently.
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