I switched my company over to Google Apps nearly 3 years ago, and at that time I thought it was ready. Is this even a question today?
brian fanslau
· 3 weeks ago
I've been thinking the same thing! Already doing most of my typing and article creation as well as spreadsheet work in Google Docs already!
I believe that Google Docs will win this war simply because they are leading the edge in communication and collaboration. With the the ability to host your documents online so they are already saved no matter where in the world you are is already a very sweet deal considering you have to purchase Microsoft Office. Before Google Docs I used Open Office because it is free and virtually did what Microsoft's office did with only a few catches that were easy to work around.
Microsoft may have the edge right now specifically with their office solutions right now I believe they lack vision as to where the industry is heading and often they are reacting to the world's consumer needs instead of being pro-active and anticipating them as well as they had back in their early years.
Looking forward to your polls and your "Face-off",
Sincerely,
Brian Fanslau
Ian
· 3 weeks ago
I know these face-offs are meant to feature two products, but let's no forget OpenOffice.org, which is as functional as MS Office and FREE without the privacy and security concerns of cloud computing.
mnegrini
· 3 weeks ago
Which has neither the elegance of Office, nor the collaboration of Google Docs. Boring, me-too product.
Dragos
· 3 weeks ago
I am a satisfied Openoffice user. If GoogleDocs allowed to change the margins of a document I'd use it more often.
r0cketman22
· 3 weeks ago
Exciting!
(Daily Google Docs user)
meleighsmith
· 3 weeks ago
I'm looking forward to better functionality in Google Docs. Current incarnation drives me a little crazy - formatting issues especially.
Sullivan McIntyre
· 3 weeks ago
Google Docs is useless to me until it supports fixed *height* page view AKA proper 'page' view. Can't believe it still doesn't!
dyegov
· 3 weeks ago
If only they could make it so pages look like pages instead of a very very long page, and also that I could change the margins, I'd be using Google Docs way more than I do now. (Applying a ruler like office's one would be very useful too but not as needed)
Jerry Zambrano
· 3 weeks ago
diddo... So far they have text editing in a WYSWYG format... but all text with no structure... so it'll look HTML. Hopefully their functionality will improve drastically if they want to be competitive.
Chris Pogi
· 3 weeks ago
I thought Office was leading at the moment?
Jerry Zambrano
· 3 weeks ago
Microsoft IS leading at the moment, especially with their new release of Office 2010 which will force Companies, Corporations, Universities to Upgrade or get the new product.
Currently Office doesn't measure up, but if what I hear is correct, it should be more feature rich.
J.
Jerry Zambrano
· 3 weeks ago
I'm getting ready for this possibility. So far, It still looks like plain text... but there's some other functionality as well... Improvements are on their way. But currently it's not able to compete w/Office especially with MS Office 2010 release.
Though, I'm looking forward to open source anything.
Thanks for the article/post.
J.
Aaron Baer
· 3 weeks ago
What I think is interesting is that Google probably won't need to snap a significant amount of users for this to be successful. Look at the Apple/PC user ratio, Mac can't compare when it comes to users! But people still say that Mac is a real competitor (and I'm one of them).
I don't think there's anyway that Google will ever dominate this market or even get more of it than Microsoft has - but I do think they will (and do) offer a good alternative. As long as they get their small percentage of hard core loyal followers, I bet this will be deemed a success.
matthewdlyons
· 3 weeks ago
30-50 updates in the next year? Woo hoo! We'll see if this helps assuage the concerns/gripes of those who hold firmly to MS Word because of functionality differences. I have been quite pleased with the Google Apps suite of products. They all do exactly what I need them to do...Work with little fuss. Though I love font and type styles, I don't need 300 for everyday use.
Jordan Foutz
· 3 weeks ago
Ahhh. Welcome change. There are so many headaches associated with these Microsoft products. 2003, 2007, and now 2010?!?! MS has dominated this space for too long and even if I continue to use these MS products, Google will force them to improve their offering and make everyone's experience so much better.
Marco
· 3 weeks ago
"... alternative to Microsoft’s long dominant Office suite"
I can't help. I remember the good old Writley days. It was exciting. Every once in a while a new interesting feature. And after Google bought them, no real interesting news anymore. Well the opposite happened. Docs does offer LESS than its competitors. Zoho and heck even Thinkfree offer more than Google Docs.
TF and Zoho look way BETTER than Docs. And it makes fun to play around with them. Google Docs always reminds me of "... aww.. sorry, our janitor did it". (nothing against a janitor! lol)
I cannot understand people who use Docs. Serious, what you guys do with Google Docs? Even writing a letter is difficult because you first have to enable page breaks LOL. Such a useless application :(
Old Git
· 3 weeks ago
Can't say I'm a fan of Google docs.
malexandria
· 3 weeks ago
Are all you people just high on the Google juice and anti microsoft to the point of sillyness? Google Docs in it's current format is barely useful. About all you can do with it is write in it. Take some basic notes, and that's about it. It's unusable for serious document writing. It's clunky, has horrible layout tools, and why would you want an INTERNET based application to write and store your valuable documents anyway? Just once I'd like to see some critical reporting about Google's tools than all this silly, mindless, google waving. It's as sickening as hearing Apple Fanboys.
Jon Buscall
· 3 weeks ago
A lot of the companies I work with here in Sweden use Google Docs. It's almost a surprise NOT to get a document shared with me.
Everyone bitches about Google owning all our information but they still use it. Especially in the PR and ad industries.
Nathan Nash
· 3 weeks ago
What about open office?
el7cosmos
· 3 weeks ago
this could be interesting...
MrBillyWhite
· 3 weeks ago
Google Docs is very useful indeed sometimes, but there is still a long way to get it anywhere near as good as Office, which, as much as I hate Microsoft's products, is much better in terms of quality, so my vote goes towards Microsoft Office. In a years time I may think differently, but Powerpoint 2010 looks awesome, and I wanna see these Google Docs updates before I believe 'em, even though I know they'll be good.
kim/ohradiogirl
· 3 weeks ago
I am not a fan of how Google Docs strips down PowerPoint presentations. Google Docs have some collaborative tools, but the interface won't compete w/the features in Office. I like Google Docs for basic documentation because it can't effectively handle anything else at this time.
Jeff
· 3 weeks ago
With www.OffiSync.com you can actually use both in a nice way. OffiSync is an add-on that lets you edit in Office but store and collaborate in Google Docs!
Adriano
· 3 weeks ago
GOOGLE IS EVIL! Wake up people!
wesleysoccer
· 3 weeks ago
Google Apps user here...Can't believe that not all Universities and schools are using Google Apps...Go Docs!
wesleysoccer
· 3 weeks ago
Google Apps User Here! Can't believe not all universities and school are using google apps...Go Docs!
Furthermore, a FREE version of MS Office software, the new "Starter" edition, will be available by then.
Open Office is not good enough to replace MS Office or even MS Office Web Apps. Google Docs is even worse, and the security failures with Google Docs to date are enough to ensure that Google Docs can never enter the mainstream, which should come as a relief to us all:-
Once Google Docs has an outline mode for the word processor my Word will wither from my usage
Kendrick Caranicas
· 3 weeks ago
Word is a lot like Photoshop. Fancy, but way over powered for the everyday user. Give me Google docs any day.
Shane Burgess
· 3 weeks ago
A good test that I try is to print labels. They work in Word and Open Office but not Google Docs. Therefore, something is still off here and I cant use them for certain things. This will be fixable in a year, hopefully they will do it.
All Comments
I believe that Google Docs will win this war simply because they are leading the edge in communication and collaboration. With the the ability to host your documents online so they are already saved no matter where in the world you are is already a very sweet deal considering you have to purchase Microsoft Office. Before Google Docs I used Open Office because it is free and virtually did what Microsoft's office did with only a few catches that were easy to work around.
Microsoft may have the edge right now specifically with their office solutions right now I believe they lack vision as to where the industry is heading and often they are reacting to the world's consumer needs instead of being pro-active and anticipating them as well as they had back in their early years.
Looking forward to your polls and your "Face-off",
Sincerely,
Brian Fanslau
(Daily Google Docs user)
Currently Office doesn't measure up, but if what I hear is correct, it should be more feature rich.
J.
Though, I'm looking forward to open source anything.
Thanks for the article/post.
J.
I don't think there's anyway that Google will ever dominate this market or even get more of it than Microsoft has - but I do think they will (and do) offer a good alternative. As long as they get their small percentage of hard core loyal followers, I bet this will be deemed a success.
I can't help. I remember the good old Writley days. It was exciting. Every once in a while a new interesting feature. And after Google bought them, no real interesting news anymore. Well the opposite happened. Docs does offer LESS than its competitors. Zoho and heck even Thinkfree offer more than Google Docs.
TF and Zoho look way BETTER than Docs. And it makes fun to play around with them. Google Docs always reminds me of "... aww.. sorry, our janitor did it". (nothing against a janitor! lol)
I cannot understand people who use Docs. Serious, what you guys do with Google Docs? Even writing a letter is difficult because you first have to enable page breaks LOL. Such a useless application :(
Everyone bitches about Google owning all our information but they still use it. Especially in the PR and ad industries.
www.wesleysoccerblog.com
The president of Google's enterprise division may be right, but not in the way he would like.
MS Office Web Apps could replace the desktop software for some users next year:-
http://www.timacheson.com/Blog/2009/sep/microso...
Furthermore, a FREE version of MS Office software, the new "Starter" edition, will be available by then.
Open Office is not good enough to replace MS Office or even MS Office Web Apps. Google Docs is even worse, and the security failures with Google Docs to date are enough to ensure that Google Docs can never enter the mainstream, which should come as a relief to us all:-
http://www.timacheson.com/Blog/2009/aug/google_...