the reason is simple. Microsoft wants Google search revenues. A good offense being a good defence, Google attacks MS's bread and butter. The more Gates goes after Google, the more Google will release software to increase "stickiness" (there's a dated term) and hurt the competition.

I don't know that I thik it's the best idea. Let Microsoft makes a lot of Money on MS Office, but there are better technology markets out there. Why not sponsor Open Office and still focus on where Google has the main advantages. I think Google would make more money taking on EBay than MS.

google needs eyeballs for the ads it serves. this gets it eyeballs, encourages those eyeballs to tell other eyeballs to visit the same page (and ads) and gives google a captive audience that is likely to stay on the page longer than a casual surfer. google can also understand the person behind the eyeballs pretty well and look into and appeal to the brains behind the eyeballs. perfect!

I think you're heading in the wrong direction with this article: Corporate users aren't even a target for Google so far. Sure, if a company decides to use Google software they won't say no, but that's really pretty much accidental. Google's target are the Soccer Moms, or home users, pick whatever term you want: They bring in the most money when it comes to advertising, Google's only real source of income. Google Calendar, Spreadsheet and the rest only serve to tie home users to Google and maybe not even that: the most important thing about them is probably the news coverage. Free advertising! When you ask people what comes to mind when you say "search" half of them will say "the second one of each pair of socks" and the rest will proudly say "Google" because they feel modern. It's all about appearence.

Don't forget that most of the products, including Spreadsheet and Gmail are still in beta. Even so, the real benefit of the products is the sharing capability so users can SEARCH documents for information. You are right about the ad revenue. But the real purpose of the whole thing is so users will be able to search a larger pool of information.

I WISH google would take on ebay. Ebay is getting worse and worse, and are vulnerable, but the main issue is to get something everyone uses. Since everyone already uses google to search, and everyone uses ebay to search for products for sale, it seems that google is in a good position to take on ebay.

Google should offer a simplified FreeBSD deskop with Thunderbird, Firefox and all the search utilities (and desktop applications) built in and an ad stream to the PC manufacturers. Actually pay them to install it and offer the manufacturers part of the income stream post-sale. Rock solid. No blue screens. Useful. Returns the profit on the PC to the manufacturers. Ballmer and Co end up under bridges fighting with racoons for the last discarded french fry. That would nuke MS for freakin' good. Ballmer could do his orangutan dances, go into his disco seig heiling routines and throw all the chairs he wants, but he would have nothing to offer in response except a promise that he'd catch up in five years or, more likely, law suits based on spurious claims of damage. It's obvious, MS doesn't have it in them to work in an environment in which they have to compete. Apple ships completely new OSes, adapts to new CPU architectures and reinvents music distribution in the same time that MS does absolutely nothing. $50 billion in the bank. 60,000 employees. Can't ship an OS in five years. Signs of certain senescence and corporate sclerosis. We know what's next. . . Come on, Mr Schmidt, stick the knife in Ballmer's eye and watch that paunchy effeminiate poseur do a real goddamn jig, the one we're all waiting for, the freakin' death rattle. Ship the GoogleDesktop and end it, man. The Google desktop

Article title: Google Spreadsheets: The Footbal Mum's Excel The internet is full of enough of americanisms as it is, please try to do the english language some justice. American footbal = crap...should also be renamed american handball...real football = soccer.

Let's not start another sports war here okay dirtball /\ Everybody knows that our internet, sports and technology exceeds all other countries and is a model to look after. Why don't you try braces and going to the dentist and then we can talk. :)

~ "Google should offer a simplified FreeBSD deskop with Thunderbird, Firefox and all the search utilities (and desktop applications) built in and an ad stream to the PC manufacturers. Actually pay them to install it and offer the manufacturers part of the income stream post-sale." ~ Actually, Dell is working with Google now and already partnered on this. All new Dell Computer will be shipped with Google, A Dell/Google home page, and most of Google's products will be included. In fact Dell and good will be splitting the profits. New shipments are now getting ready to launch.

One thing not mentioned is the tendency of google offerings to reduce the need for PC owners to do their own local management, e.g. updating software, backing up files, etc. If a version of the spreadsheet allows user data to be stored by google as gmail allows messages, attachments etc. to be stored, and similar things happen with word-processors and other tools, then, provided connections are fast, secure and reliable, and provided that google behaves responsibly, the move to thin clients on the desktop will make computer use for the uneducated masses much easier and safer, as anyone will know who has lost work because a machine died and backups had been lax. Likewise the end users will not have to worry about installing updates, buying new versions, etc. It also supports access to the same data from multiple sites -- you no longer need to carry a laptop, or even flash drives, around, with the risk of hardware and data being lost or stolen. This remote access to software and hardware managed by someone else may be even more important than the fact that it is free. It could also reduce the hardware cost of home machines because they don't need so much disk space, backup media, etc. Maybe lots of small businesses will also start seeing the advantage. On the other hand, a single earthquake, tornado or bomb could devastate millions of google users, unless google does multi-site backups. Aaron

I think those who discount these products are a bit short sighted in saying they won't be a threat to microsoft in the corporate world. There is no reason Google couldn't sell appliances to the corporate world to serve these applications in a nice, easy to manage and update, secure deployment. The beauty of which has the benefit of corporate desktops potentially not requiring as much resources (lower cost, easier to manage as well).

Technology evolution takes about twenty years from initial concept to broad acceptance. This isn't about this spreadsheet program, it's about delivering services across a network. Google is using MS's tactics against it - must suck to see the free browser trick being used by the competition.

You guys are to technology what David Koresh was to religion. Odd cult following zealots who are so far away from reality it is unreal. A bunch of long hair, couch patatoe freaks who think every mom and pop would care to sit around and write their own drivers to get their PC to work with the latest gadget. They like shrink wrapped software that is easy to use, out of the box, no hassle. Those of us who write real software, that we actually sell for a profit (OMG we get paid for our efforts) makes sure the end user has an easy install process without having to write code to get it to work. If you want to work for free be my guest, enjoy the cardboard box under the bridge. That is where the other low lifes who don't believe in an income will be found.

Non-American football isn't actually a sport. It's 95% watching them dink around in the middle of the field, with 3 shots on nets each half, and, if you're lucky, one goal per game. That's watching grass grow. Twenty-two people on the field isn't a contest, it's a army division. Cut about half of them and something interesting might start to happen.

The value of a web based spreadsheet is accessibility. Any business where the owner wishes to control / review business data from multiple locations will find a web based spreadsheet more flexible that MS or any other, for that matter, computer based spreadsheets.

A lot of analysts that this doesnt have the potential to impact Microsft's revenue but what they fail to see is that despite Google having lesser features, it has for the first time with Writely and Spreadsheets been able to integrate the power of the internet with office documents which was previously unheard of. In a small world, with customers, clients, and partners potentially scattered all across the world, a Writely or a Spreadsheet, is worth a lot of money. People would be willing to pay to access the ease and functionality of GTalk and Writely weaved in beautifully. google stands nothing to lose, Microsoft stands everything to lose.

what in the world are you talking about with clean installers, etc? with a web app, there is no installer! duh. and considering the screenshots i've seen of some msn live junk choking on its own installer... or even windows hitting a BSoD while it's trying to install, obviously making software for money doesn't make it any higher quality. further, nobody said that google was giving it away for free forever... maybe they are now... as a sample, but nobody said that it's forever. sounds like you really don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about, huh? speaking of dwelling under bridges, i think there's someone else of your relation under there. eats goats... etc.

You mentioned that Google is an accidental software king. Isn't Microsoft the same. Give me a break, they didn't even write DOS to begin with. The point you have missed in this entire story is that Google is not trying to compete with Microsoft. It's just one of their offering. As far a Google Calendar or Gmail are concerned, most users would agree that Gmail and Calendar are better than Outlook.

Nothing is free. I won't be using it.

...using a potentially faulty product... Any evidence of faultiness mentioned? No? Just a casual smear by a lazy hack. Welcome to poor excuse for journalism 2006. Class is in session...

Okay goat boy, you missed the point. Since you are an idiot I forgive you. :)

actually, kenpo, you might be right. with your incoherent rambling, it was indeed hard to discren what you were really talking about. apparently what you seemed to be talking about wasn't at all your point. I chose to respond to the parts that made the most sense and were the least factually incorrect (which made for a pretty slim selection, I'll admit). it's nice you took the opportunity to clarify your stance and show that my assessment of you was correct. you might want to watch where you're throwing your rocks - you'll break your house.

You guys might want to take a look at CosmoPOD. As far as I can see, their applications are streaks ahead of Google. Visit: http://www.cosmopod.com

Google's Q2 earnings call takes place this Thursday at 1:30pm PST. So, in the grand tradition of IBM's football ads, we're asking you, our friendly neighborhood readers, to make the call.

Read my lips: Google Apps for Your Domain does not compete with Microsoft Office. Microsoft's Office market may be $12B, but the lion's share of those billions comes from a relatively small number of large companies. Writely can't compete with Word, Spreadsheets can't compete with Excel. They cater to the Soccer Mom, not the corporate worker. Right now, you need both to do your job. It's not a zero sum game.

Read my lips: Google Apps for Your Domain does not compete with Microsoft Office. Microsoft's Office market may be $12B, but the lion's share of those billions comes from a relatively small number of large companies. Writely can't compete with Word, Spreadsheets can't compete with Excel. They cater to the Soccer Mom, not the corporate worker. Right now, you need both to do your job. It's not a zero sum game.