Its a very long way to go for Google to compete Microsoft on Office Market. With the kind of changes in Office 2007, it further becomes difficult for Google to keep up to the mark. As far as corporations using it, i really doubt since there is a very steep learning curve which all organizations have to think and they are gonna have an impact over the numbers.

Naren, Bangalore, India

Can't wait.

Fred Bryant, Saint Petersburg, FL

The real story here isn't technical, it is economic. Even a threat of competition should mitigate Microsoft's monopoly pricing power, and benefit all of the rest of us, no matter how dumb our terminals.

Cal, Omaha,

This software is free to use:

"However, Google enjoys a significant lead, with most of the Premier Edition components already available free. From today, for the first time, it will charge for “white label” tools that carry its customers’ brands, so that e-mail addresses can be in the name of the client company."

For me at Uni but living off campus this is perfect - no need for tiny memory sticks that get lost in cars or on the bus etc! And for small business could always just add a 'signiture' at the bottom of the files...

trent uni boy, Nottingham, Eng

The National Assembly of Wales has just upgraded to Office XP - which has already been superceeded by Office 2007. I have Office 2007 because some of my clients might use it - but for most work I use Open Office, and have suggested to the National Assembly that they move away from using expensive Microsoft tools to use FREE Open Office tools!

Mark, Cardiff,

looking back to the history , we know for sure that Googles inovative ideas do make an clear impact. Slowly and steadily Google is becoming a Portal/Global organisation which catters information to the people, by the people and for the people.

Saumendra Swain, Mumbai, India

Every time you hit a website with Google Ads or a Powered by Google search bar, you are being tracked. Your search terms are associated to you, your Gmail messages are being scanned and now you can have all your student papers and corporate proprietary documentation fed into the machine as well. Google owns all your information and you may or may not be comfortable with this, but you are certainly creating an implicit trust relationship with every individual at Google who has access to this information.

keypadmayhem, Fedland, MD

MS Office is not very nice.

Try Lotus Smartsuite for £12

(I don't work for IBM!!!)

Iain, Woking, UK

Google and the Chinese Conundrum !

By providing whatever level of service is possible within Chinese system, Google is delivering a great service to those who have access to the Internet.

Not everything can be censored in today's world, and things will hopefully eventually change in future.

For now, USA is itself turning in to a Big Brother society at a very fast pace. If you do not believe this, just check out with the ACLU.

Hashim Syed, Karachi,

Try http://www.xcellery.com. Use your rich desktop application while enjoying the same collaboration features you get on Google docs & spreadsheets.

Terry Miggel, Manhatten,

Google is attempting to bond us for the next 30 years like how we are wedded to Microsoft for the past 30 years. One way or the other, it is a bonding.
Both the giants stifle competition and bring in monolithic structures in the market.
Google plan is worse than Microsoft, since it involves continous payments - year after year. Where as microsoft payment is one time purchase license. If windows 98 or 2000 is fine for your business, you need not buy 2003 or vista.

Venkat, Mumbai, India

Software as a Service - seems a great idea but can an office in a browser it really compete with client based software when it comes to things like data security and the ability control who's forwarding your company documents and where? There are still big barriers to overcome for Docs to catch up with the new office 12 - lets see if they raise to the challenge.

Paul Whittle, Oxfrod, England

Whats "visionary" about taking a modern computer and turning it into a 1960/70s dumb terminal?

David, Sheffield,

Reliability or cost may not be the driver for Google's product. If anything, it should be online anytime Browser based access and sharing/collaboration, which currently in MS is very clunky.

Aparna, Bangalore, India

Why do businesses buy Micorsoft products. I use the free Open Office, which is verty effective for 99% of office users. I used to be an IT support worker in a number of large organisations so I know what users want.

Google will probably get the big corporations thinking of moving away from Micrososft.

I will bet that within a few years, probably from India or eastern Europe, there will be a team that will really boost these open source products and then Micrososft will lose its hold on the market.

The sad thing is that the big corporations do not have the confidence to support the free software developers.

Odtaa, Richmond, UK

I'm not sure how turning a modern £800 computer into a 1960/70s "dumb terminal" is "visionary"!

David, Sheffield,

Why bother when you can download Sun-micro systems 'Open Office' system for free!!!!!!!

John Mills, Raunds, UK

There still seems to be a piece of the jigsaw missing. If a small business can be run using a very cheap combination of Linux, Google & Tesco software, why is that no-one appears to be selling a small-business laptop at a price that excludes the Microsoft suite?

Pete, Kent, UK

Ask me, i like the ideas of google but are they really innovative? There are many other online spreadsheet tools but they do not have such marketing strategies as google is using, or say whatever is launched by google, came in headlines of business news. MS is taken as blood sucker devil by many people and google is imaged like a super hero who can save us from MS - Monster Services!

If any MS guy is listening, they should launch some express edition of Office (may be only word and excel's) with cheaper cost and should provide some SECURE way of storing docs/sheets online.

Utsav, Tokyo, Japan

I don't know much about Google's new office tools package here but...and as much i would like to say hey forget Microsoft products. If I were a owner of a business and my valuable data docs were stored on a remote server thats not even owned by my company and the ability to monitor, manipulate, backup, and maintain that data is relatively up to Google's decisions. It would be a great cause for concern to me security wise because I would feel like I have no control over how my data gets used. Now don't get me wrong this is good potential for home users but business's... I don't think IT departments are gonna buy into this no matter how well the software works.

Ryan, London, Canada

Nothing new here, in fact heralding back to MS original idea that the PC is hogwash. Some apps can harness the power of the internet, others require isolation. The important thing is to recognise when and how to implement the app.

In this case, I think it is a good idea, it will find a niche.

What is not too certain is: will it generate revenue?

What is certain is: its not gonna displace the standalone suite anytime soon.

If ever.

Edmund, Singapore,

Google cooperates with the Chinese Communists to suppress freedome of speech - Nice. Google saves every keystroke you type and sells it to ALL bidders - Nice. Google no longer performs web searches just simply serves up links in revenue order - Nice.

Trust Google - no sooner than I'd trust Microsoft.

Change will come, but Google is unlikely to be the agent. Software as a Service - sure, under an ironclad contract. My company won't be considering this anytime soon. Google is the new MS/IBM/monster corp - look elsewhere for digital freedom.

Mark Moore, Lakewood, CA, USA

Until the industry can fix the fact that millions of gamers still need a powerful rigs in order to play HD gaming, PC will never be a dumb terminal. At least not in the next 5 years. Unless consumer behaviour change and they want to play consoles instead and uses PC as means for work, internet and web appications

:)

Torres, Singapore,

It came to my knowledge about 18 months back when google started supporting open office product without any benefit. The storm was building then only. It just become giant and more powerful now.

Ayub, Mumbai, Maharashtra

Sorry forgot to cover the financials. At $50 p/year p/user over five years I don't see the savings benefit. I also have to assume that the $50 is a introductionary fee which will rise quickly once Google understands the costs of support and legacy software development. I would expect that cost to climb by 15 to 25% after the first year.

I'm sorry - I don't see much revolution here and very little evolution. Personally I'm looking towards someone like the Skype guys to really shake up this market.

Mark Moore, Lakewood, CA, USA

While I would love the idea of dumping Microsoft Word for Google Apps, NOT being able to keep the files local under the control of my business is a big deal. Also, often I'm working on my laptop on a plane, or while on a ski vacation without any internet access. You have to be able to store the files locally for this to take off. (And I wish it would)

I think this idea is really good for school discticts however. They should market this to high school, middle school and colleges. When those kids start working they will be use to the "Software as a Service model", and might be saying things like "MS Word"? What the heck is that?

alan snyder, Palo Alto, California, USA

Google has a great idea. You have to give it to their visionary for thinking up something like this. The main problem I find with this service is that it is a burden. You have to admit that the internet is not everywhere. You're not only relying on the security and stability of this internet software but internet connectivity and stability must also be taken into account. What about business men on long flights, will they be able to get access to their data offline. Basically Google is then going of the assumption that all is perfect in the realm of online productivity. On the other hand, time is money in the business world. There now becomes this greater risk which could mean the lost of money. I do have to admit, this idea is an idea of the future and should not at all be scratched or given up on.

Trevauhn Grant, Tulsa, Ok, USA

"software as a service" model has its own limitations and it requires a whole lot of mindset ,for people to change and therefore it needs a different strategy to capture the audience by developing killer-applications, and it calls for an out-of-the-box thinking.

for example: one application that google can think of is for medical industry, like transcribing the audio files through online mecahnism (using voice-recognition ) and enabling the transcriptionist to edit the draft documents with live help for relevant medical terms would be a killer application for medical industry.

just a tip of an ideaberg !

BALA, chennai, India

Google's easy to adopt and use SaaS (Software as a Service) model liberates all users from fixed location, hardware platform and vendor-limited information technology solution dependencies.

Their business model and crisp operational execution has clearly demonstrated unmatched expertise and ability to deliver reliable and easy to use information technology solutions that deliver exceptional performance and outstanding value benefiting information technology users across the globe.

Google's continued deployment of a worldwide information network (WIN) is a key contributor to individual and business productivity, profitability and competitiveness.

RP Tucker, Phoenix, AZ

Here Google...Here are my personal docs and financial spreadsheets. Please keep them safe and secure. I would like to sign up for the service that Mind Melts them to me when I can't get Internet Access.

D Loftis US, Cleveland, US

The reason Google is providing more of these services is to gather more content to index, which provides advertising agencies with a clear view into a person personal information, this gives advertising agencies better targeting metrics to sell to there customers and intern pay Google for the advertising campaigns. Take Google desktop search for example, none of the data is not kept private (unless you use the hard to find enterprise edition). I think Google has a great search service and a great recognizable name but I think indexing people’s personal information for Google’s financial good is doing evil. I stopped using gmail for this specific reason.

Paul, Seattle, WA

James Petts makes a good point. I dont trust internet security enough from any company to put my business' most important information on someone else's servers. I have tinkered a bit with Google spreadsheets and it is a nice little tool if you are already on the internet and need to jot down some notes, but when I last used the spreadsheets I found them to be very limiting in the amount of space you can use. There were not as many cells available to me as Excel, nor was it anywhere near as intuitive to use.

I also do not trust Google to keep my information private from government organizations. Its not so much Google as I do not trust ANY company to keep my information private.

And WHEN the first business gets their information hacked and stolen, I will laugh. Everything gets hacked, everything. Google itself has been hacked. This just paints a huge bullseye on them as the potentially valuable information stored in documents will be too big to pass up for seedy characters.

Adam, Houston, TX

I don't know much about Google's new office tools package here but...and as much i would like to say hey forget Microsoft products. If I were a owner of a business and my valuable data docs were stored on a remote server thats not even owned by my company and the ability to monitor, manipulate, backup, and maintain that data is relatively up to Google's decisions. It would be a great cause for concern to me security wise because I would feel like I have no control over how my data gets used. Now don't get me wrong this is good potential for home users but business's... I don't think IT departments are gonna buy into this no matter how well the software works.

Ryan, London, Canada

Software is a service is already a reality. All the major vendors have SAAS initiatives, usually behind the company firewall, where they call it Service-Oriented Architecture. Outside the firewall, Salesforce.com has gathered tremendous traction in the last few years for the mid-market, and has proven the model works. This is a logical extension of function. Global access to your data, no more need to do software upgrades at a vendor's whim, reduced infrastructure costs, automatic backups, etc. Bandwidth is not really a big issue, either, as the edits will happen directly on the Google servers. The market will look very different in a few years, and Google knows it.

Simon, Austin, TX

It is good for corporates where they have to spend millions on maintaing servers, keep backups and keep adding space for growing demands. If corporates want, they can have secure connectivity with google's sites so that all data transfer is secure.
Cost to corporates - $50 /user/month
Savings to corporates - Reduced servers for space, No backups or restore need, No license cost to Microsoft, No Office upgrade needed, ...

It will help in lots of ways. I see people moving to e very fast. It was a time when everyone thought Internet as a place where we have texts only. Then people started keeping photos, then music, then videos and not live video, games and what not. Google is concentrating on the right place with best ideas.

We have been brainwashed with MS that only certain things can be done using IE or on Internet. Google is clearing that brainwash. I have my 2 cents on Google winning this long battle.

Avinash Kumar, Malvern, PA

Running software over the internet in the application service provider sense is inherently inefficient: why should one have to pay for internet bandwidth and a share of somebody else's computers' time to do something that can be done faster and with more functionality on one's own computer? Unlike Google's most popular services, there is nothing about office software itself that requires up-to-date information from the internet. Ultimately, it is more efficient to run as much software as possible on one's own computer, and transfer only data that one needs. Security is also an issue: even if Google's own servers are secure, imagine the potential for people to hack into the stream of text coming from one's PC going to the servers, letter by letter, at an earlier stage. This is really not one of Google's brigher ideas.

James E. Petts, Burnham, UK

I'll never go back to using one-PC word processing. It's too limiting. I use Google for important documents, that way I have access to them and can update them whether I'm in the office, at home, or travelling with a laptop. And I also have the comfort of knowing there is only ever one, up-to-date version of the document. Same thing goes for email; one-PC email was always limiting.

Harry Collier, Tetbury, UK

Breaking away from Microsoft can be accomplished easily using the free "OpenOffice" suite from Sun. Works just as well in my opinion and reads all the MS documents.

Don, Parksville,

OpenOffice is a part of most Linux distributions - completely free.
So if you really want to break away from monopolists like Microsoft (or Google !!!) get your broadband connection running and download the latest Linux OS distribution of your choice. Complicated installation procedures and bad hardware support have put off people from using this free alternative.
However, this has been improved greatly in recent years as I can testify as a non Tecky.

Nico, London, UK

I hope Google's office services are more reliable than gmail. I am very wary of relying on them to keep my data and work safe and accessible at all times.

Stephen, London,

Or, for an even better alternative to M$ or G$, try the open source OpenOffice which is compatible with the great cash cow and is free for individual use.

Richard, Bath,

Having just bought the $150 version of Microsoft Office (aimed at students and homes) I thought I would satisfy my curiosity and download Open Office. Open Office isn't so bad: it creates doc and spreadsheet files that are recognized by Microsoft Office. There's lots of competition out there. Eventually you'll see people selling their authentic MS Office in boot sales (or flea markets as these are known in North America).

Terry, Montreal, Quebec

Where are Google's servers? Whose laws protect them? Under a modern, democratic democratic legal system, life can be wonderful. What happens when the data is stored somewhere that doesn't have the same legal recourse in event of breach of security? Do you really want your sensitive business documents stored on a server in a corrupt country where a $500 dollar backhander lets anyone have access to the data? With secure dial-in services to your own network available wherever there is Internet access, why would anyone trust such an unknown 3rd party?
That's apart from the cost of the service. Microsoft has transparent pricing and sells tools you can use as you need to. As we know from other industries, once you are tied into a service, getting out can be difficult, expecially if the provider is under jurisdiction of another legal system and has control of your vital data.

KR, Stockport,

It's good to see more alternatives coming to market, but *this* particular offering is so dependant on the network working and leaves you completely high and dry when the net is down. The last two days, Google was at the "Future of web apps" conference to demo this, but *none* of the demos ever worked during any of the presentations... not becaue of Google, but because of the internet connection that was dead. How would you do any work while on the flight/train/airport/home or at work when the internet connection is down? The future is not in web-only apps. The future is where you see the best of the net combined with the best on the desktop. Software + Services.

Alfred Biehler, Great Missenden, UK

I've been using OpenOffice for months and have little intention of ever switching back to Microsoft Office or switching to Google's stuff. In fact, but for a few very minor issues, I'd even switch fully to Linux.

Anonymous, Canada, Canada

This is a long time coming, I was expecting it last year. I've been using Google Mail since it's launch for my personal mail, and the ability to access and quickly search through five years of email is insane and comes up trumps against my company email 100MB allowance!
I have been advocating that my company should look at a Corporate Google Mail offering as soon as it's available, as for our employees travelling - it makes so much sense.
Some admin staff may still require the full office for their job function, but the rest of our staff on the road mainly only need to view word and excel docs - the rest of their work is specialised applications.
This is what competition is all about - bringing new innovation to the market. Microsoft should be worried about this!

Chris, New York, NY, USA

Steve from Edinburgh is missing the main point that Googles office is available from any internet connection, not just the users PC or laptop. The price is very competitive as well. It would seem that the Application Service Providers (ASP) are back with a bang. The ASP sector was slated to be as big as the dot com boom of the late nineties but companies of all sizes never caught on to the cost saving and efficiencies and were ALL worried about potential security flaws. Well done Sergey and Larry :>)

Henry, London,

I work as a consultant and don't always have access to the net, so I could be totally stymied without local access to my apps and data. if Google had a standalone client that could rjun locally and hook up seamlessly to the net, that could be of interest.

neil Murphy, cromer,

Google are trying to run before they can walk--without a comprehensive and automatic offline back up to these services no organisation in its right mind would commit to a Google Apps only strategy. Also many of Google's apps are fatally handicapped by their limited functionality for mobile users. Who needs, for instance, a calendar that won't autosynch with your PDA?

Mick James, London, UK

I would also love to break away from Microsoft. However, this solution is not much use if you have to work, even for part of the time, in situations where you do not have internet access.

Sam RIchmond, Sunderland, UK

MS Office is still miles ahead in my view. One of its significant strengths are its powerful developer APIs and VB macros, which let me easily enhance and augment the functionality of MS Office to suit my needs. I want the "frills" thank you.

I also still worry (irrationally) that the software as service / remote approach will financially be much more profitable for software companies in the long run, and it means that we are separated from our data, so are we not as users shooting ourselves in the foot? I can still run an earlier version of MS Office I bought 7 years ago, so spread over that time, the purchase price is not really that bad.

Jules, Birmingham,

If you had ever tried the google doc and spreadsheet applications online, you would know that is very far from the convenience of MS Office.
I think it's really a great tool, you can share documents, access them everywhere... but you don't have the same instantaneity when you type something. There is always a little lag time that is very annoying.

fouch, Paris, France

Most Googlers have been using Outlook? Ridiculous. I'd say at least 70% of the workforce has been on Gmail, for more than a year. The other office apps have more moderate usage.

A Googler, Mountain View, United States

Companies of all sizes will benefit from Googles move. Other players will enter the market, prices will drop and confidence in online security will improve. The end result will be lower costs and increased productivity. The days of project teams all working from one location all based within one country are gone. Money will follow high skills and low wages. Server based software makes all this possible. Welcome to the future of software development.

Alistair Toomey, Edinburgh, UK

If you are realling looking for a good alternative to M$, then look no further than OpenOffice.

Steve, Edinburgh, UK

If this takes off, it will validate SaaS (Software as a Service) displacing at least in part PC-based personal productivity software. There does remain the issue of access when a laptop is not connected to the Internet, mind you. If Office-type apps migrate to Web-based services (SaaS), then MS Windows' grip on the PC market could be gravely weakened: MS Office is one of the main reasons why so many businesses standardize on Windows for desk/laptops.

Gervas Douglas, Auragne, France

Its about time someone broke the monopoly of Microsoft. I personally love Google's "no-frills" approach in their Google ads, Google search page, Picasa, Google Earth, and most notably, Google mail.

I had an episode recently where my Google mail account was compromised. Google were very helpful and i eventually regained control of my gmail account.

My fingers are crossed that one day google will launch its own free OS, maybe/preferrably using Linux. If its as good as Google's current and previous products, I, for one, will be one of the first to switch.

Pete, Cov,