The blogosphere comments on Google Spreadsheet

Thats a very amateurish review by brian, to say the least. Multiple pages or crosslinkages are not 'advanced' features, these are very basic features for any work to be done needing a spreadsheet, unless Brian considers adding 2 and 2 satisfies his general and simple usage requirement.
there simply is no comparison between the google spread and excel. unless and until google spread offers the same or similar range of functions and macros, even trying to do so is naive, and i doubt google is trying to place the product as such either. between excel and openoffice calc, sure, maybe.

Hi atanu,

I have to disagree here -- cross-linking spreadsheet data *is* an advanced feature in my opinion. This comes from witnessing the way most home and corporate customers use Excel on a daily basis. From that experience, I have to say that most ordinary folks could "get by" using Google Spreadsheet -- not all, but most. Since everyone's opionion on the word "advanced" differs all over the place, I'll leave it at that.

However, I will concede, somewhat, that many "ordinary" folks do use multiple-page worksheets. I wonder if that feature will be coming to Google Spreadsheet any time soon?

Hi,

Did you try out http://zohosheet.com , an online spreadsheet app. Hope you would enjoy it.

Cheers!
Segu

I'm with atanu. The reviewer either doesn't use spreadsheets much, or didn't spend a lot of time working through a wide range of scenarios on Google's model.

Yes, Google's spreadsheet can do some VERY basic things. Then what? To me the main weakness is its inability to produce useful output, in either printed or electronic form.

To their credit, Google has included almost all of the built-in functions that can be found in Excel. That's the easy part.

Google doesn't have a trace of the other tools that give spreadsheets their power. Want to see how far Google has to go on this? Open Excel and look at the "Data" and "Tools" menus. Then there are macros and Visual Basic. If this is to be a "full frontal assault" on Excel, Google has a lot of work to do trying to incorporate these things into an online product.

I don't get the feeling that Google is seeking to supplant Excel. It seems like the "everyman" goal is more like it. In that case they need to get cooking on graphs, and more extensive formatting features.

Even users who are looking for a basic alternative to Microsoft can download Open Office and use other online sharing options.

Right now this is an interesting conversation piece and nothing more. In its present form Google's spreadsheet is useless. I'm not saying it doesn't work, I'm saying it's not the most practical choice for any scenario you can devise. What I'll be interested to see is what direction Google will take this product in the months to come.

My full review can be found here: http://tsw2.brianjb.net/?p=531

Google Spreadsheets is not a competitor to Excel. Why can't they be used together? I make sheets in Excel, and would use Spreadsheets to easily share w/ family members.

I don't think Google cares about Microsoft. Microsoft is good for computing in general. Anything that makes it easy for people to get online makes Google more money. seems simple to me.

Have you guys ever tried http://www.xcellery.com.
Their service combines best of both worlds. Microsoft Excel extended with online spreadsheet capability. No installation is required and it works really good.

It's pretty obvious it's a shot across the bows of Microsoft - but let's face it, it's a weak one.

By providing a feature-poor service for free, not only do they offer little incentive for the easy, but those who really care about their data aren't likely to be tempted by the idea of their work being data-mined and possibly losts without recourse:
http://www.platinax.co.uk/news/07-06-2006/google-spreadsheet-flops/