It's been a little bit more than two years now since Google merged Google Spreadsheets with Writely, and while there has been a lot of talk about online office suites, the latest data from Compete indicates that Google Docs & Spreadsheets is still mostly attracting casual users who don't spend a lot of time with the service. Also, one of the most interesting data points in the Compete study is that only about 58% of unique visitors to Docs & Spreadsheets actually used one of the available apps after visiting the site. A large number of users never makes it past the marketing pages.
Overall, traffic to Google Docs grew 158% in the past 12 months. In September 2008, Docs & Spreadsheets reached around 4.4 million users. This, according to Compete, represents 2.4% of the U.S. adult online population.
Compete also compiled engagement metrics for Google Docs, which clearly indicate that the service is still mostly popular with casual users. The average user uses Google Docs about 3 times a month, a number that has held stable for the last 12 months. Interestingly, the average user only spends about 5 minutes per month on the site.
Compete also provided us with some additional data about Zoho's office suite, one of Google Docs closest competitors. Zoho saw about 310,000 unique visitors in October, but those users spent close to 10 minutes per month on the service. While this is twice the amount of time users spent on Google Docs, Zoho's users also visit the site about 3 times a month.
Update: We also received some additional information from ClickStream Technologies . ClickStream's survey compares usage numbers for Google Docs, OpenOffice, and Microsoft Word. The results of this survey are very similar to Compete's statistics, both with regards to how often the apps were used and for how long.
Google Docs clearly still mostly attracts casual users. Those users who spend most of their days in word processors and spreadsheets have not switched over to web based productivity applications. About a year ago, we wrote that Google Docs wasn't ready for the enterprise, and this data from Compete shows that, a year later, it still hasn't been adopted by power users (though the Compete study did not look at enterprise and business users, who would be running Google Apps on their own domain).
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Writely document code is very weak. However, the spreadsheet is quite good. I'm in Google spreadsheets several hours per day and keep 10 open at one time. They are shared.
The question is one site vs best-of-breed. Since Google Spreadsheets are pretty good; I don't bother with EditGrid (which is a better service), but Adobe Buzzword is a fantastic word processor compared to Google Docs.
Posted by: Dennis Ashendorf | November 14, 2008 11:20 AM
Communicating with a remote team, I desperately want to switch to google docs (or a good free online sharing tool :) And while we do use this tool for a number of things, there are a lot of limitations. On the spreadsheet side, it's incredibly slow to manipulate fields - especially if you have a large file or a lot of columns and rows. I think on our bug tracking doc we hit the limit to the number of rows they will let us add.
Then there is a problem with spotty internet. There is a work-offline mode, but I really don't know who really remembers to use this feature - and so you can be working online one moment and cut off the next.
Overall Google Docs & Spreadsheets are great assets to have, but more work is needed before heavy use is possible.
Posted by: Pokin | November 14, 2008 1:20 PM
This is a fair way to gauge an application's stickiness and relevance to its customer base. This post spurred me to look back at our October numbers see how we here at PipelineDeals stack up against the "big kids". Using our internal analytics (yes, Google Analytics) to arrive at the same summary level data we found:
Visits/UV: 5.2
Avg. Time on Site: 16:11
I am inclined to wonder: Are we 66% more valuable to our customers than Zoho?
Posted by: JP Werlin | November 14, 2008 1:51 PM
we've had success using Apps for your domain
Doc repository, messaging, calendar
We were going in a day and better in a week
Even with non-gmail - or any google app - users
Email alone's worth the costs of admission
Posted by: smcnally | November 14, 2008 3:08 PM
Agreed - traditional users of word processors and spreadsheets might never feel comfortable with the paired down version of the online spreadsheets. However, folks that replace spreadsheets with other methods of tracking/project managing will see a value on a shared environment.
Posted by: antonio
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November 14, 2008 7:34 PM
I like Google Docs but it is problematic. When transferring data to either a blog post or to another document it drags crazy erroneous code over with it. It is difficult to get non techie types interested in using it. People get freaky if they think you can access their documents and ignore the invitation, wanting to believe that big brother is in there with them. Whatever, I like it.
Posted by: Laurie Manny of Long Beach California | November 16, 2008 4:38 PM