NewsForge: Google Spreadsheets and the Usefulness of Online Applications

“To many commentators, the newly released Limited Test version
of Google Spreadsheets is the first move by a major company to
challenge Microsoft’s domination of the office suite. The
functional reality, however, is less dramatic. From a user’s
perspective, Google Spreadsheets suffers the same limitations as
Writely, Ajax13, ThinkFree Online, and half a dozen other online
applications. Its lack of printing options and narrow selection of
format, sorting, and formula tools makes it such a lightweight
application that using it for anything except the simplest of
projects is impossible. In fact, now that online applications are
no longer a novelty, its main interest is as an illustration of how
little developers assume that users actually need in an office
application.

“One key assumption Google makes is that spreadsheets are used
entirely online. Although that assumption holds true more often
than not, most spreadsheets do provide options for printing,
because the few times that you need to print, your need is probably
urgent…”

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