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Google Docs Aims At Microsoft Office Live
mikesd81 writes "Channel News reports that Google took an important step forward Monday in its rivalry with Microsoft Office Live, reporting that Google Docs will allow users to edit word processing documents offline. Google said users of its Google Docs word processing application can use Google Gears to save and then edit documents without being connected to the Internet. 'The offline capability will be limited to word processing documents, though the company plans to add it to spreadsheets and presentations in the future.'"
Anyone know if this will work with the iPhone? It _sounds_ like it's a web application that can function even when not connected to the 'net so I could see it working but I'm not a programmer (and at work so I can't test it) so there might be some obvious element I'm missing. If it does work with the iPhone, allow me to say "cool!"
There's a rivalry? I need to share spreadsheets with many various clients and they always suggest Google Docs. Never once have I heard a person ask to share a document with Microsoft Office Live. And my clients are each in very different industries.
Is there any real competition yet between the two in terms of user base?
Developers: We can use your help.
Is that someone throwing chairs? Why would news of Google letting you edit word processing documents anger someone that much?
I don't get it.
Will this also edit Star Office word processing docs?
What? What do you mean "read the fucking article"?
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Google is riding the wave of computer hardware commoditization into one where general computing is also a commodity. Google's approach here is exemplary because it shows that monetizing every aspect of the consumer's digital interactions (which is essentially the current model for computing/internet-based businesses in the U.S.) is not necessarily the key to maximizing one's profits. By providing basic services free of charge, Google gains a share of a market that wasn't traditionally its own, and thus gains billions of additional impressions for its ads. Furthermore, by leveraging its trusted name, Google can now reasonably expect a fair increase in its ad audience with every additional service it offers.
This is a genius idea, which is an example of how forward thinking and good PR can bring in higher profits than unadulterated greed (yes, telecoms, I am looking at you). However, what this also means is that with its large cash purse, Google can continue to provide further services, channeling more and more monitor-watching eyes to its own webpages. Its purchase of Youtube provides ample evidence that Google won't be upset if you spend 100% of your computing time, on a Google-branded internet.
I've been wondering for quite some time why the online/offline thing was such an issue. Currently I use foxmarks which syncs bookmarks automagically. I use autosync functions on my SideKick II all the time. Synchronization tools have been around for a long time.
The only REAL problems is trusting the online storage with your data. As far as that goes it can be encrypted with better than 128bit encryption and keys remain local only if you like. I don't think that Google Docs is competition to MS Office, it's just the new way to do things. The technology finally caught up (broadband, cheap storage etc.) and now MS Office's day in the sun is fading away. A word doc (saved in OOXML or not) will seem outdated soon when you can't access it from the cybercafe or the Apple store. Sort of the same thing as 'what good is an MP3 if you can't take it on the road with you?'
Anyway, MS, good luck with that...
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
I heard there were ponies? Where are my ponies?? OMG THINK OF THE PONIES!!!
Didn't docs come before office live?
Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
MOD Down. Link NSFW.
Thank the gods for NoScript!
What kind of cruel April Fools joke is that?
At least rickrolls have some modicum of class and style, even if it is getting older than the stale cheese in your grandma's panties. nimp.org is just disturbing.
For those that are interested, the source code can be downloaded from here. Notice it's a BSD license.
Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
I was just visiting the google gears page and they offered it for linux. In beta of course.
Don't yOU ever get tired of posting the same shit nobody reads?
And learn how to fucking type already.
I still use LaTex+OmniGraffle for serious writing and OpenOffice.org when customers use Microsoft document formats, but I find myself using Google Docs more for short notes, short papers, sharing writing with other GMail users, etc.
The addition of Google Gears based local document storage over the next few weeks will not be a feature I ill need often, but it will be good to have.
BTW, I use a utility tht you can find on the web (gdatacopier.py) to periodically back up all of my Google Docs - just in case.
Offline is nice, but can we have some of the basic functionality fixed? Like a way to display paragraphs and linebreaks differently, for example?
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Why isn't a consortium forming between Google, Apple, and OpenOffice.org to give all three office suites the capability to edit each others' documents with 100% formatting and content compatibility, and 100% support on Windows, Mac, Java, and X11 based *nix environments? Each one of these organizations is formidable by itself, able to fight Microsoft off a bit here, a bit there. In the end, though, they're each a 600 pound gorilla, and Microsoft is an 800 pound gorilla. But these three organizations together, a team weighing in at 1800 pounds, would crush Microsoft like an ant.
McCain/Palin '08. Now THAT's hope and change!
The page loads as quickly as it would have in 1994!
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
In Soviet America, all documents are added to Google's NSA data mine!
According to this page it is actually April 2nd ( http://www.rcmautismnotebook.com/WorldAutismAwarenessDay.html )
which is totally what she said
I really think hybrid applications that are both traditional and Web apps are going to be the way of the future. Local applications don't allow you to edit from any machine, are not automatically kept up to date (payware), and don't allow developers to easily leverage ad revenue or subscriptions. They are not as simple for collaboration and publishing to the Web. They are not as easily targeted to all platforms because of lack of standardization for running applications across OS's
Web apps are reliant upon a network connection, don't provide the security demanded by some use cases, and are not good at finding geographically close users. Performance is limited by network throughput and latency.
Really in a free market the direction of development is almost certain to go to apps that connect to internet services or apps that are also internet servers. They both come down to the same thing, just differing in the emphasis on decentralization or centralization. Given that the network is the more common limiting factor today (especially in the US and the third world) hybrid apps like this offering are probably going to be very big, very soon. The only thing holding this back has been Microsoft's ability to cripple Web technologies and their monopoly influence in the office suite market.
Yeah. When you want someone to run your hostile code, MS Word's run-at-the-user's privileges script execution engine is very convenient, and it can all be done under the cover of "look at this .. uh .. text. Yeah, text." How can Google ever match that? They're going to need to release some kind of special browser plug-in so that the authors of "documents" (i.e. software) can install their own malware on readers' machines.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Just curious about the tech. I ass/u/me this is all in Javascript. How are they writing to local storage? I must have fallen asleep at some point in my Javascript-learning and missed something. Are they exploiting a bu^H^H subtlety? It seems like whatever makes this possible, would be a hole that that browsers need to close.
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I have evaluated both for use by my workplace, mostly because I despise the the "document sharing through email". I used cvs (and LaTeX) for collaborations on group assignments as a student back in the 80s, so I know how much better it can be. Unfortunately, both fail in my current work environment.
Google Docs fail because it is not Microsoft Office, and I'm not going to convince my cow-orkers to learn a new set of office applications.
Microsoft Office Live fails because it is too complicated and confusing for me to learn, much less teach. I couldn't even figure out if the documents are under version control, and the "integration" into the office applications is a joke (it is very slow and requires multiple indirections just to open a document, and it takes a separate navigation bar).
So while my workplace is a lost cause, I use Google Docs with my family. It has a simple and intuitive interface, and my family are much less tied to MS Office than my workspace.
Notice how clever that was. Apple said they won't put ODF in iWork, but they never said that they wouldn't put ODF into TextEdit, which comes free with every single Mac.
microsoft just added support for online document sharing with a little add-in for office. 500 mb space. of course you still need to have a copy of office whereas with google apps they're free.
http://workspace.officelive.com/
-- troutsoup.com
Even if that isn't true, I believe that all office live offered initial was basically a place to store and share Office documents. There was no functionality to actually create or edit Office documents.
What Apple and OpenOffice do is negligible since they have virtually no relevance in the market MS Office dominates.
Google and Apple both have the money and savvy to try to compete in the "serious business" world but it would cost them a fortune and they have no guarantee they can beat the fantastic MS Office teams. They are the best, afterall. Excel and Word 2k7 are amazingly powerful and elegant programs.
If you are writing a doctorate thesis or a novel, or your C*O or director must have that perfect letter head to send out their decree, yeah, MS Office is better for the job. Actually a Mac would be really what you want, since MS actually makes Office better on the Mac than the PC version. And Pages and Keynote from Apple give your professional document templates and presentation on a par, if not better, than most Word and PowerPoints you'll see. Not to mention the additional Adobe design tools you can use to embellish your docs even more.
My IT dept looked at SheerPointless and decided it's not worth the hassle. Yet those Word and Excel files that people sent and re-attached and CC'd/BCC'd round-and-around are the exact reasons why IT limits our mailbox size to the ridiculous, and email server backups now take longer and longer and ever more tape. I've stopped using work emails and Office for things I do not want to delete, since Google practically gives me unlimited space for all my email and documents.
What do people think of wikis? Have you tried Bootcamp, Zoho, or ThinkFree? For a lot of my IT work documentation, especially *live* documents while the project is ongoing, Word to me is just obsolete. There are tons of online/collaboration document/project tools now. All the people outside of Redmond developing these apps in new and novel ways together is a challenge even for a 800-lb gorilla like MS to keep up. For the past 2 years that I've used Google Docs, the improvements have been pretty dramatic, not necessarily in new office features, but in advancing the application platform as a whole to work near flawlessly on all major recent browsers. When was the last groundbreaking, really productivity boosting feature added to Word (that you didn't have to be trained to do)?
It's a race as to who can improve faster to keep ahead of the trends. I say use the right tool for the job, but don't get too attached to one software or hinge your workflow on some particular arcane feature no others have, or you'll end up like places I've worked for where WordPerfect is stil around.