by Aner Ravon
So the first week of our web life reality experiment is over and the withdrawal symptoms are definitely not gone yet. You very quickly realize the fundamental differences between reviewing an application and using it, or perhaps more precisely actually depending on it. Never the less, and despite the shivers and shakes, so far web life has proven doable.
Gil and I are going through a rigorous selection and first time usage process with word processing, calendar management, spreadsheet manipulating, presentation sharing, you name it. The outcome so far ranges from real “Eurekas” to violent laptop shutdowns. Is the web ready to serve as a real desktop alternative? Well, after the first week we cannot predict yet. Some interim conclusions are making headway though.
Let’s start with spreadsheets. We’re all experiencing a lot of buzz lately, propelled mostly by Google and their recent launch of Google Spreadsheets. While the public discussion is not free of Googlebation, other solutions such as Zoho and iRows receive rave reviews and are considered by many to be much better. ThinkFree offers an online collaborative office suite, spreadsheets included…so many options, so little time, how can one choose???
Apparently the good old pony still has a trick or two left. After registering to all services I made an attempt to upload a heavy duty excel sheet to all. By heavy duty I mean one of those interactive business model spread sheets, where formulas, graphs and formats are embedded so deeply into one another, like a profound case of reheated spaghetti. Inseparable, indivisible. After all, with all due respect to simplicity and the rest of the web 2.0 rah rah, performance is still a key requirement when it comes to real life dependency. iRows got the boot right there. From separation of the different tabs to totally different sheets, through loss of formulas and errors in formatting – the spread sheet I got was not the spread sheet I uploaded. ThinkFree, Zoho and Google took the (really challenging) spread sheet like professionals and made it to the next round.
ThinkFree was eliminated next. ThinkFree is a Java based application, and while having tons of advantages it is not really what we came here to test – a pure web based service. We were left with Google and Zoho and here selection was not that trivial. Zoho sheet is a great application and a part of a bigger online office vision that so far puts together an impressive show. Zoho offers a much more comprehensive office experience then Google does - richer formatting, more user defined options, etc. However, when it came to editing a heavy spreadsheet Zoho was simply too slow. Google offers a much lighter and faster interface. And yeah, it is Google, integrated with my Gmail and with my search. Passing on it would be like passing on Robert De Niro for Taxi Driver.
So here it is. Google Spreadsheets rocks! A reliable, easy to use and comprehend application. It did take some time to switch from Excel to Google, but it felt like driving in a different country for the first time (and not England or Japan), no more. The sharing feature worked like a charm and Gil and I actually edited a few not so trivial sheets in real time for a real work need. The sharing is very intuitive and a chat box powers a real time conversation while editing. Nice! From a simplicity point of view, Google managed to collect the very basic useful features and lay them out on top of the web interface. Everything you need is at the top. If you can’t find it for the first time, try again, chances are it’s there.
The one caveat I could really notice was with the formatting. It seems like Google has not put the finishing touches there. No matter how hard I tried, I could not play with borders, colors, merging of cells and using different panes. Either Google doesn’t support it or I simply can’t tell where it is. Same difference. This is where the Beta concept sucks big time. You can’t finish off a spreadsheet this way. If this is not fixed and quickly, then regretfully I will need to retrack to good old Excel. I do trust Google to finish the job though. Sharing is enough of a use case to launch a service but the real need for online sharing is not really mission critical enough to trigger a desktop-to-web switch. For a first release, though, Google Spreadsheets has more then enough to make the qualifying cut. Their application is definitely usable. Let’s see how I speak in a few months time though, stay tuned!
Next week – Word Processing.
Aner Ravon
Track with:
22 Comments so far
Leave a comment
Thanks I most certainly will check it out! Zoho has terrific applications which all come into play in our reality experiment, stay tuned!
06.15.06 @ 10:58 amDon’t forget to check out EditGrid. Lots of features, and I think better sharing options than the competition.
06.15.06 @ 11:02 amGood point, I missed them though! Shows you the power of marketing for web 2.0 apps!
06.15.06 @ 11:40 amExcellent reviews - great idea! Interestingly enough, reviews of Google spreadsheet were not very positive when it came out. Sure, it may be better than others, but really, how does it compare to a desktop app - specifically in terms of speed, convenience, etc…?
06.16.06 @ 2:15 amIt can’t replace Excel when it comes to building a complex model, but it can definitely and easily replace excel when it comes to doing an expense report. I don’t know if that is dominant enough to trigger a switch. I guess not yet. However its getting very close and I think its just a matter of time.
06.16.06 @ 6:31 pmHi, thanks for checking out ThinkFree. But as you can imagine I must protest you booting us at the second round;)! If you are basing your test on web based applications, then ThinkFree Online runs within a browser and should fit this description. If the problem is that not all browsers run Java, then by the same token some browsers have plenty of problems with AJAX (Safari for example). And by limiting your test to AJAX only applications you are limiting the functionality that is reasonably possible. And when it comes to real usability, you really need more than what the current set of AJAX productivity applications deliver, which I think was the problem you ran into with trying more complex formatting.
Oh and by the way, we are developing lightweight AJAX versions (QUICK EDIT) of our spreadsheet and presentation applications (we currently have an AJAX version of our word processing application) so that we can offer the flexibility of working in a fast, dynamic environment or using the added functionality available in our Java versions. This way we can also offer online and offline versions of our office suite. No other productivity solution can do that.
The side by side comparisons you are doing are great though and really give users a better idea of what to expect and what some of the limitations can be. Whether you use Google, iRows, or ThinkFree everyone has their own preferences and I think we can all agree that finding free alternatives is always a good thing.
06.20.06 @ 9:59 pmMany thanks for your comments and for your attention. No pun intended on my behalf AT ALL!. Java applications are portable across browsers of course, but my experiment was with purse web services where Java is still running on the desktop. If there are indeed problems with pure AJAX apps - that’s exactly what I am trying to find out!
I am not saying anything against ThinkFree’s approach. Some people would definitely prefer it over just AJAX!
06.21.06 @ 4:54 am[…] Last week I wrote about online Spreadsheets. If you recall, the best and final round was between Google and Zoho and Google came up as the winner. When it comes to word processing though, Zoho Writer is my personal favorite , hands down. If I could use only one word to describe why it would be maturity. Zoho writer is simply a mature online word processor. Many vendors face a creativity block when it comes to migrating traditional desktop applications to the web. I noticed it with many spreadsheet applications that were simply mimicking excel. Zoho seems to have passed that hurdle long ago and this is all over the app - from the big feature through the “little things” that make the difference. […]
Pingback 06.22.06 @ 8:42 amEditGrid have a new release yesterday. In this release, we allow stockquote and forex to feed into spreadsheets by a “remote data” function demo here , an API allows users and developers participation.
Of course we won’t forget our fundamentals, this version is having an even better spreadsheet functionality.
06.27.06 @ 3:51 amBuy xanax online….
Commit suicide on xanax. What is xanax. Xanax withdrawal. Xanax norx needed one day fedex overnight delivery. Xanax. Geniric xanax. Xanax effect….
Trackback 02.27.08 @ 7:32 pmCialis….
Cod phentermine as well as cialis cheap reviews. Cheapest cialis. Cialis best price buy online. Taking cialis. Purchase cialis online. Cialis and drug craving. Cialis….
Trackback 03.27.08 @ 4:34 pmTramadol cod….
Canine tramadol. Tramadol cod. Best price for tramadol. Tramadol….
Trackback 04.28.08 @ 2:23 amBuy xanax online….
Buy xanax. Cheap xanax. Xanax no prescription. Geniric xanax….
Trackback 06.10.08 @ 10:46 pmHow while on adderall xr….
Adderall without a precscription….
Trackback 06.17.08 @ 5:53 pmI really like the layout and colors that you chose for this website! It certainly is incredible! 
Buy ultram cheapest site….
Ultram buy cheap no prescription. Can you buy ultram in mexico. Buy ultram cheapest site. Buy ultram international pharmacy. Buy ultram….
Trackback 09.01.09 @ 4:26 amCheap generic 2mg xanax….
Buy generic xanax information. Generic xanax 2 mg no prescription. Xanax generic. Generic xanax….
Trackback 09.22.09 @ 10:33 amLeave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Hi, Thanks for mentioning Zoho Sheet. Yes, we are aware of the performance of Zoho Sheet when heavy duty spreadsheets are opened. We are working on it to improve the speed. Kindly check back later.
Ramesh
06.15.06 @ 9:52 am