Google says Docs to catch up to Office next year

SINGAPORE--In a year, most enterprises will have the choice to "get rid" of Microsoft Office if they so choose, suggests Dave Girouard, president of Google's enterprise division.

Girouard said in an interview here with ZDNet Asia that he expects Google's online suite of applications, Google Docs, to reach a "point of capability" next year that it will serve the "vast majority's needs."

He acknowledged that Docs is currently "much less mature" than Google Mail or Calendar. "We know it. We wouldn't ask people to get rid of Microsoft Office and use Google Docs because it is not mature yet," he said.

But this is expected to change in about a year, after the company's introduces another "30 to 50" updates.

Read more of "Google: Firms can 'get rid' of Office in a year" at ZDNet Asia.

[Police_States_of_America]

this will get interesting. Office provides a very large percentage of profits for microsoft

[surferstevo]

In order for most corp networks to use google docs they would need the following...
Track Changes
Mail Merge(with ODBC connectors to Mysql,Oracle etc.)

[Vegaman_Dan]

@Surferstevo:

You forgot:

Product Support on Site
Technician Certification.
Service Level Agreement comparable to competition

[Tallredeye]

They are going to have 30-50 updates in 1 year ?!?

[solitare_pax]

Why not? Microsoft and Apple provide 1-20 patches for their respective programs and operating systems every week. Technically, that's an update too.

[michael_j_x]

@sol
I don't thing patching a hole or fixing a bug is the same as designing and developing new features

[Vegaman_Dan]

It's not a great way of advertising a product, that's for sure.

"Look at the new Google Docs! We're only 30-50 version updates behind what you're using now!"

[pentest]

um, in a development project, 30-50 additions in a year is nothing.

[Darthfett]

"um, in a development project, 30-50 additions in a year is nothing."

Exactly. I personally am already using it because of a few of the features it has that Word and OpenOffice Writer DON'T have. In some ways, they have come up with innovative ideas, others, they have neglected. They'll bring it up to speed soon, but in the beginning of a project, the idea is to get publicity from innovation, not to create the same thing as what you're already using.

[TheTechmeister]

Darthfett: "I personally am already using it because of a few of the features it has that Word and OpenOffice Writer DON'T have."

Please let us know which features...

[scdecade]

Call me skeptical. At most large companies the office productivity suite standard is set by the power users. Since having 2 office suites makes it difficult to share documents, the standard gets set by the functional extremity. Getting 80% of the way there probably won't make much of a difference.

[cary1]

What people don't realize is that it's not just the feature set that makes the market share. If that was the case, Openoffice would be installed on all the computers by now, because it has all the basic features of MS Office

[DamonDMEC]

Yeah, but Openoffice is a complete slug. I use it, but I don't like it. Office (I have the eval copy) is much faster.

[koreth]

Having all the features and having all the *basic* features are nowhere close to the same thing. OpenOffice is suitable for casual use but a lot of business use of MS Office makes use of power-user features that OpenOffice lacks.

[Vegaman_Dan]

OpenOffice is free though!

But... yeah, adoption rate just isn't there. It's like linux in a consumer retail PC for sale. Sounds like a nice idea, but then you go and buy a Windows or Mac instead.

[lazycat202]

the battle is on. However, I don't trust to store docs in the clouds
Google has a long way to go

[Super2online]

Google is looking at the same issue that any company would if you're behind. By the time you have caught up to today's features, the line has moved on you again. Take this with a major grain of salt because that gives Microsoft plenty of time to move the line way down the road.

[jragosta]

Please, Google. Do NOT try to catch up go Office.

Instead, try to make a GOOD application. Office is so incredibly bloated and slow that it should not be your target.

[cary1]

How?

Your comment infers that googles target audiance is only people like you. MS Office it targeted at Enterprise Users and though it may appear "bloated" to you, many users need the features that that you see no need for.

If Google wants to compete in the Enterprise space then it has to have a feature set comparable to MS Office.

Google needs to play in the Enterprise space because that is where the money is. The fact that you get Google Docs for free is because you are a beta tester for Google's real end product, a office suite that it can sell to companies.

[humanssssss]

"Office is so incredibly bloated and slow that it should not be your target."

Call me ignorant but compare to all other office products out there, MS Office is by far the best and fastest there is.

Google strength is on its cloud and instant use. With MS Office, you need to have a laptop and have an installation of it. It is not as ubiquitous as Google Docs because you can't use it anywhere and everywhere.

[NPGMBR]

humanssssss - Ummmm.......Google Docs is not by any stretch of the imagination ubiquitous. The fact that it is availalbe means nothing if its not being used to the degree that Office is. If I remember correctly, MS is currently testing is online version of Office and if they include it with future purchases of Office for the Desktop they will have a big headstart over Google.

Google might call that anti-competitive but I think MS could easily argue that its a natural evolution of Office in a competitive market different from the inclusion of IE in Windows.

[Vegaman_Dan]

I'd have to agree that if Google wants to make inroads they need to offer something different enough to warrant attention and closer investigation. If they just offer what Office has now, then that isn't going to be enough to make anyone want to change and have to start over from scratch in an enterprise.

[pentest]

Programs like Word can not touch the flexibility, speed, and data integrity of Latex.

[Mr. Dee]

Dave Girouard, stop with the wishful thinking. No sane corporation is gonna decide one day, oh lets get rid of Microsoft Office. On top of that Microsoft will have Office Web Apps ready, which is free and provide the fundamentals most users will need if they decide they don't want to pay any more for the full desktop software. Google needs to understand, just like how people are glued to their search engine, people are also glued to products like Windows and Office that work great. Google needs to stop betting everything on the on trick pony and come out with some original ideas and stop trying be the next Microsoft.

[kwhsy82]

Be curious if they support VBA/macros. Pretty crucial for our company and I suspect a lot of other companies as well. Yep, I get that not all users use them, but for mission critical applications, like cross-company budgeting in Excel, they are crucial. Until they have an answer there, they will get niches of the company, but Office will remain.
We're also one of those companies hard pressed to cite any features after Office 2003 that we actually use. It's the ability to customize what we have that matters.

[colinnnwn]

I am a big proponent of Excel, Access, Word, and VBA used togethter to do some pretty sophisticated things. But let me say this with all stringency...

If your company is over 1000 people, and perhaps even over 100 people, you should NOT be using VBA kludges to do ANYTHING mission critical. You should also NOT be using Excel or Access to do budgeting. If your company was one of my vendors, and I found out about this, I'd look for other viable vendors.

[jusben1369]

Google Docs = Office
Zune = iPod

[01Phyxius]

Clarify.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Clarify = Nortel :)

[John-D]

Google will need to achieve nearly 100% up-time for their cloud network and support the major 20% of the functions of Office. If they can deliver that in 2010 I would be surprised.

And if they can deliver the above they will still have problems selling cloud only delivery (as opposed to the MS Office 2010 hybrid model) to many corp. security personnel, IT training, and staff road-warriors.

In the end, the old centralized vs decentralized computing debates will decide who wins.

[aubskibob]

They will only have a chance with start-ups. Large corporations will not embrace this in the next 20 years.

[eltoro2827]

google must die

[censorshipblows]

So should you.

[pretenderkc]

Google should stick just with the ads business. :-)

until the internet access is FREE, Google has a good dream but will find out that it's just another nightmare!

though, i praise Google for trying.
this will keep MS in check!!

[Remo_Williams]

When they can beat Outlook, come back to us with asinine claims of catching Office.

[Vegaman_Dan]

I use Gmail for my personal mail, but I hate the interface. Even Eudora is better than being stuck with one view all the time. Thankfully Google lets you use other mail clients to access it so Gmail's interface isn't needed.

I like the service, but not the system/interface design.

[squished]

I am adding an appointment to my calendar (Outlook calendar that is) to revisit this news article and see how far along Google Docs has come since then.

Accomplishing the "Vast majority's needs" will not cut it. Period. For anyone that thinks Google or any competitor can take down Office by doing good enough for the most used features in office, read Joel Spolsky's "Strategy Letter IV: Bloatware and the 80/20 Myth". It is dead on accurate and still applies 8 years later. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000020.html.

To take down Office, Google Docs has to be *everything* Office is and better. Whether by improved performance, security, price, or whatever. If it's only just as good as Office then companies won't invest in the price of switching.

[rshimizu12]

It's really hard to see how Google Doc's will catch up to Office or OpenOffice in the near future. Google is going to have have a boatload of programmers dedicated if it hopes to catch up.

[Jamie_Foster]

The bottom line is that people should not use Google Docs. The spreadsheet is like something from 1983. If you want an online office suite then try Thinkfree or Zoho. If you own Office then try Office Live. People need to decide if they are happy to hand over so much private information to Google.

[gggg sssss]

and DHS, and MPAA, RIAA, IRS, your ex wife's lawyer, the locak skanks's lawyer.

[robvme]

Let's not forget that MS Office ties nicely into the rest of the Microsoft stack: Sharepoint, Unified Messaging, IM,OCS, Forms Server, Project, LiveMeeting, Exchange, Excel Services etc.... Google's solution is laughable right now and doesn't compare in features, capability, or interoperability. You can't just look at the Office Client alone you need to look at how the enterprise leverages it to present information and data that is supported by many line of business app that knowledge workers use. We arent' just talking about creating a static doc or spreadsheet when we talk about the enterprise. I think it is going to take more than 30-50 "updates"

[gggg sssss]

Google may catch up to office 2003 next year. But MS will be onto office 2010. And on And on.