Yesterday Google launched an online spreadsheet to compliment their online notebook. It is being widely said that this is an attack on Microsoft – which to a certain extent it is….but it is so reliant on one thing that google can never guarentee– bandwidth. These tools are great for an office environment where bandwidth is usually working, and especially useful in an environment of hot-desking. However the places that really need free software like this – developing nations can not use it because their internet connections are so slow and unreliable.
Having said that, these really are useful tools and can allow collaboration on projects, thus making ‘virtual teams’Â an even easier proposition. The Spreadsheet allows the files to be exported as .csv or .xls but the notebook does not support any exporting (yet), but I guess one could just copy and paste!!!
I guess the next question is will we ever see an online Powerpoint??