Google Fatigue Sets In

Technology Review ^ | June 13, 2006 | Wade Roush

[george76]

Users are reacting to Google's new online spreadsheet with a big yawn. Is the company searching for a strategy?...

Can there be too much of a good thing? Some Google watchers are beginning to think so.

Leading technology bloggers' reactions to Google Spreadsheets, which allows users to build and share simple Excel-like spreadsheets on line, have ranged from lukewarm to hostile.

Critics are assailing Google's latest offering for having several technical weaknesses.

And, more significantly, they're beginning to question whether Google's long-term strategy in the arena of Web-based software applications is good for the company, for users, and for the Web.

"When is the last time Google released a product that really changed our lives?" asked Michael Arrington...

unlike Microsoft Excel, Google Spreadsheets can't create charts and graphs, and it lacks some of Excel's mathematical capabilities, such as array multiplication.

"It's not an Excel killer," writes Computerworld columnist Richard Ericson. "If you're a financial analyst responsible for consolidating large budget spreadsheets, you're not going to adopt Google Spreadsheets.

Need a chart? Stick with Excel. Ditto for graphics (such as WordArt) or PivotTables."

[Terpfen]

Most of my e-mail now goes through Google's Gmail

My condolences.

[tdewey10]

Google is evil - or at least it's founders are.

[napscoordinator]

Hey, look at that--people realizing that Google doesn't offer anything truly useful besides searching!



lol. You are so right.

[Number57]

Funny!

I started my own private blog, where I do random google searches and post them (Web, Images, Groups, News, etc)

Note: I didn't spam my stupid site

[Lunatic Fringe]

Google stock is a joke. It's grossly overpriced, the P/E is almost 70. They 1.4 billion in net income, less than 1/10 the size of Microsoft, and their stock is over $400 a share. Fear is the only thing keeping that stock afloat.

[mgstarr]

"why do it online?"

Try to think conceptually - it makes perfect sense. As bandwidth increases, which it certainly is, so does the point of having web-based software.

When modems dialed in at 1200 baud (or less) no one could understand the point of graphic web pages. Then again few people think outside the box and that's where entrepreneurs are born.

Status quo in business gets you nowhere.

[kingu]

My condolences.

It's a total breath of fresh air. Our company e-mail accounts are so swarmed by spam due to their ancient age that cleaning it out kept two computers and half my company bandwidth occupied 24/7. Google does it for us for free, it has saved tremendous amounts of time, effort and costs - if that deserves condolences, than I'll take them every day!

[paulat]

Fear is the only thing keeping that stock afloat.

What price are you shorting at?

[Lunatic Fringe]

swarmed by spam due to their ancient age

You need to fire your IT guys. Spam can easily be filtered on any email system, yes even Microsoft Exchange. We use Exchange and after I purchased and installed Brightmail, our rate of spam hitting the Inbox dropped significantly.

[Fish_Keeper]

It can't be that bad of an idea because Microsoft is going to try to imitate it with "Windows Live". While at the same time trying to squeeze as much revenue out of their shrink-wrapped Office software as possible.

The status quo with Microsoft software is that you run bigger and fatter hardware under your desk each Windows or Office release to run bigger and fatter software on it. Google might stumble with their online software efforts but someone will eventually get it right.

[Terpfen]

It definitely deserves condolences, from a design and features standpoint. Without getting into a rant, let's just say they could do GMail much better, and with a UI that didn't completely blow.

From what you've described, anything would've been better than your corporate network.

[stripes1776]

Stupid article - web-based programs will trump single install vesions without a question.

I thought Netscape was going to be the universal desk-top 12 years ago with web-based applications. I wonder what ever happened to Netscape?

[BJClinton]

Why is there any option other than pornography?

[mgstarr]

I did a test between Gmail, Yahoo and Excite on spam and there's no contest. Gmail is the only intelligent one and Excite hasn't a brain at all. Yahoo is somewhere in the middle.

The people who poo-poo Google either haven't a clue or have a vested interest in dying technology. And I'm not singing the praises of Google, nor do I care about the stock, but the business concept and entrepreneurship is invigorating. This is what drives America folks, not crumbling old tech. You'd think conservatives would appreciate that.

[Lunatic Fringe]

I'm not short on Google, although I wouldn't doubt it's in one of my funds.

[Richard Kimball]

I don't think it's about what it is now. I think it's about what it can be. I could see a lot of possibilities in embedding a spreadsheet like this in a web page. Running this as an applet could be cool.

[paulat]

EPIC says it violates both its subscribers' and non-subscribers' privacy.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/gmail/faq.html

[Drammach]

I wonder what ever happened to Netscape?

Like the Neanderthal, Netscape was out-evolved by another line of descent.. Firefox..

Both came from Mozilla... ( which is still around ) but Netscape was so focused on fighting with Microsoft, they lost sight of what the internet was all about..

I started browsing the internet with Netscape, but reverted to Mozilla..
Then I found Firefox, and have never looked back..

[mgstarr]

You can certainly tell the difference on this thread between the people who write code and those that maintain it.

Note, I do neither (finance operations geek) but I can tell the difference. Netscape may have been right, just with bad timing - that happens a lot. Microsoft got a lot of their Window's GUI interface from Xerox. Right concept, bad timing.

[Critical Bill]

This is a load of crap. Google has some of the best software on the web. Gmail is my primary mail account now. It absolutely rocks. Everything Microsoft is doing is a reaction to Google.

I agree Gmail rocks.