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February 6, 2008 10:33 PM PST

Google's spreadsheet gets neat new input form

by Rafe Needleman

(Click on the form to try it for real.)

The spreadsheet in Google Docs now supports independent form entry. That means that if someone wants to use a Google spreadsheet as a database, they can ask others to fill in data by putting information into a nice, compact form, instead of into the spreadsheet itself.

As is typical in Google Docs, this feature is simple, easy to use, but somewhat underpowered. For example, the form cannot be easily embedded in a Web page, and there's no data validation on form entries. I still recommend WuFoo for online data collection, and there are other good online databases allow embed forms (and export data to a spreadsheet for quick processing).

A pretty sweet feature is that users can easily e-mail the Google form, if all they want to do is collect a bit of data from people they know. Also, if the spreadsheet is open on a computer, the data coming in via the form can be monitored in real-time, which is, frankly, bad-ass. Try entering data in a form here.

I do expect this feature to evolve over time. Because of this evolution, I do not give good odds to the long-term survival of the other online databases. In fact, I fully expect Google to release a database application into Google Docs to go along with this bare-bones data-entry function.

Via: Official Google Docs blog.

Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe.
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by ohreli February 7, 2008 12:00 AM PST
I think you meant to say: "...by putting THEIR information into a nice, compact form..." Who's proofreading these blogs??
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by rafe February 7, 2008 5:50 AM PST
At 10:30 PM? No one. The copy desk works a more sane schedule. Anyway, thanks for the catch. Fixed.
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by kariv February 10, 2008 10:13 PM PST
I love it. For people like me who write applications on top of Google Applications (because of APIs available) the way they add simple things all the time is the way to go.
Take my project management google mashup, for example. (Not mentioning name, it is not an ad) Now I get ability for a project manager to allow people to add tasks or modify tasks very selectively. Absolutely great. Interestingly I am using GS all the time but it tool webware for me to become aware of this thing.
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by ostadvd June 4, 2008 6:31 AM PDT
great article. thanks.hoteles
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