Via the Google Blogoscoped site comes news of Google’s integration of Google Spreadsheets and Docs into Gmail. Now, anyone receiving an Excel spreadsheet as an attachment in Gmail will be offered the option to open the Spreadsheet in Google Spreadsheets (see below).
Similar functionality has yet to be added for Word documents but, no doubt, it won’t be long.
Microsoft Office? Oh yeah, I remember that…
I Love Google and use (daily) several of their offerings with great delight… For example: Gmail, Blogger Beta and Page Creator.
Furthermore as a long-time Mac user I am well aware of the whacks that Microsoft gets from the Mac community.
Now on to Microsoft Office and from a totally personal perspective… I’ve used Office on both PCs and Macs over the years, sometimes buying upgrades, and at other times, buying fresh new versions when purchasing new computers.
My usage has been primarily confined to Word, Excel and Entourage(Mac equivalent to Outlook), and my primary focus with respect to these tools has been and remains “increased professional and economic productivity”.
And over the years by every objective standard of performance and in every case my professional and economic productivity has increased by leaps and bounds.
In time perhaps online offerings by Google and others, and/or Open Source offerings such as NeoOffice may begin to match or outpace the capabilities within Microsoft Office. But today (and I must work and collaborate today) these alternate offerings are not even close to Microsoft Office capabilities.
Microsoft and Microsoft Office may have many flaws. However I keep my eye on the doughnut and not the hole. That is, does the investment result in increased professional and economic performance i.e., “increased productivity”.
Thus I look forward to purchasing Microsoft Office 2007 (for Mac) as soon as it is released.