I've been using this today, it's really good.

Microsoft should be worried. Gor the basic wordprocessing that most consumers need, I can't see any reason to choose Word over Google Documents.

The ability to store all your documents online instead of a computer will probably also make this very popular with students (and the collaboration aspects would be very useful for academic collaborations).

It's officially known as Google Docs & Spreadsheets [docs.google.com] and is a (BETA)

"Google Docs & Spreadsheets" - not very catchy.. why not Google Office?

they don't want to admit they are competing with MS.

"Microsoft should be worried. For the basic wordprocessing that most consumers need, I can't see any reason to choose Word over Google Documents. "

Open Office is just as good as Word/Excel but it is not mainstream and never will be, Office is allover the World in every company - that is a hard nut to crack, having a good product is not enough.

Google's move in and of itself isn't that significant, it is however a good kick up the arse to microsoft to come up with something too. I like competition, it's good for everyone. Microsoft only put some effort into IE when Firefox started taking market share from them. If Google Docs starts taking even a modest amount of market share then Microsoft will take notice.

will probably also make this very popular with students

Who, typically, have no money to spend. Which means ad supported. You know, I've always wanted ads next to my documents! They're so helpful.

I can't see any reason to choose Word over Google Documents

You must not travel. The biggest reason I see is called an airplane.

I don't know what everyone has against MS Office. They have a monopoly basically, granted, but it is the one good product they have.

Open office is great, but to me it just seems bulky and slow--I still use it though.

- Can Google docs be saved on your computer?
- Can you send them to someone who has MS-word?
- Can you upload an MS-word doc to Google docs and continue editing?

Without the above it wont catch on. People will stick with what they are used to. If they can change to Google docs without having to re-write all their old MS-docs then this will work.

You can do this with Open office :) However I have found these problems switching between MS-word and openoffice-word (which I have to do often) is that some colours don't match, and a table of contents goes weird when switching between the two.

I am saying its the issue of easy switchabiliy that will make or break Google docs. The reason is some of the world will be working in MS while the new-few will be working from Google. If they are incompatible it is less painful to stay with the old (MS), e.g. I use Open Office, but I can't force my clients to use it, they generally use MS-word. In most cases switching between MS and Open is painless so I stay with Open office.

Microsoft should be worried.

Maybe I've read too much Phillip K. Dick but why should I not be worried about megalocorps like Google and MS wanting to host all my wordprocessor and spreadsheet files for free? This stuff is like you're being given the option to run your business out of Hotmail or something.

Digressing, it's pretty cool although I fancied Writely a little better than Google's "ugly-on-purpose" interface. I think this is where MS will be able to win. Non-tech people will not want something as ugly as Google to handle their precious files. I think that although a lot of people trust Craigslist as if ugly = not-for-profit, people still think gradients/buttons (high dollar) = secure.

- Can Google docs be saved on your computer?
- Can you send them to someone who has MS-word?
- Can you upload an MS-word doc to Google docs and continue editing?

Yes, yes and yes.

- Can Google docs be saved on your computer?
- Can you send them to someone who has MS-word?
- Can you upload an MS-word doc to Google docs and continue editing?

Been able to do all that since Writely . . . although Google's still having problems with line spacing and code generation that makes a deal-breaker for me.

Won't privacy be an issue? Having important documents stored online may not be very secure.

On a side note it's curious they do a 302 from writely.com to google docs....

HTTP/1.0 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: [docs.google.com...]
Cache-control: private
Content-Length: 0
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 17:36:02 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Server: GFE/1.3
Connection: Keep-Alive

Let's see if they get in any trouble like the rest of us would. :)

[edited by: JoaoJose at 5:38 pm (utc) on Oct. 13, 2006]

I tried it for the first time and I've invited someone to edit my document. Word does a lot of stuff now. It's a not-so-minor publishing software. This is not that. It is basic Word, but the collaboration feature is very, very interesting.

Personally, I like it. I don't know if MS is in trouble or not, but they're big boys and can take care of themselves. But, as a small business, Google Docs may rock.

I remember suggesting Google would do this right here on WW some years ago. Nice to see it live.

Tried the spreadsheet once. It works but I still prefer excel.
Tried writely some time ago too.. but then I use mostly email and notepad so not much need for it.

It'll be a year or two before the features get good enough to make a dent I think.

I'll start using Google Word when I can write a letter with a nice letterhead and click a button to buy a stamp and ship it off via snail mail.

letter with a nice letterhead

Yes, templates is what i'm waiting for... letters, invoices, accounts etc. I like the auto-snailmailer idea too though :)

So, where's the money? Ads, like in gmail?

Ads, like in gmail?

I expect so, although quite why anyone would want to click on an ad when they're working on a document is beyond me....

I think what a lot of folks overlook is that this really ISN'T meant to be a "Microsoft killer." The collaboration and lightweightness of Google Docs is something that -- once you try it with a team at work (or on a phone interview or with friends writing a collaborative story or...), you'll wonder how you survived without it.

I've been using this since the early days of Writely (mapped to Firefox url shortcut "wr"), and I love it. I still do use Word for complex docs, but for everything else, I'm now preferring Google Docs.

Nice tool from Google,another tool to keep people come online more often

My boss showed me Google Spreadsheet about a month ago.
He want's to use it so that we can jointly edit and maintain documents.
I think, however, that I will have to continue to create the documents in Excel and then transfer them to Google Spreadsheet.
Something just doesn't feel right making them there, and I feel a lot more comfortable having the Excel copy on my computer.

Word and Open Office clearly beat Google Documents for features, but I don't think most people want any more features in word processors, I think they want convenience. Being able to find your documents wherever you are in the world using any internet-connected computer is quite a big step forward in convenience.

For those who still think that Word being on every PC will stop Documents in its tracks, how come services like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Gmail have done so well when there's Outlook Express on every PC? The reason is that people don't want a single machine based email client, they want one that can be accessed from any machine. I'm willing to bet that many of these people feel the same way about their word processing as they do about their email.

--Who, typically, have no money to spend. Which means ad supported. You know, I've always wanted ads next to my documents! They're so helpful.--

But people aren't going to be students forever, and if they get used to the idea that their files are stored online and not tied to a machine, they're no longer going to be interested in Word or Open Office. Then Google will have some high income earners (graduates on average earn substantially more than non-graduates) addicted to one of their services.

You might not want adverts next to your documents, you might not want adverts next to your email, but there's probably a substantial number of people who don't care as long as the service is free.