Interesting podcast
interview by
Gizbuzz, with Jen Mazzon and Sam Schillace of the Google Docs and Spreadsheets team (both ex-Writely).
They start off by saying that D&S is aimed at "people who need to collaborate and
share their stuff online". To the question of whether people are using it instead of
desktop apps (such as Excel), Jen said that "it's designed to enable people to work
together online really seamlessly and easily - and if you're just creating something in a
vacuum, then you might as well use a desktop and an offline application. But the minute
that you need to start getting contributions and input from other people, then it's
[D&S] a great solution."
I've written before about how collaboration and sharing are two compelling reasons for Web-based office software, but it's great to hear it from the horse's mouth (Google I mean).
Another interesting tidbit from the interview was Jen's statement that "enterprise really hasn't been our key focus" - what they've been focusing on is everyday people, consumers, small workgroups and so forth. She doesn't rule out focusing on enterprise in the near future, but "it has not been top of mind".
The question of integration came up. Sam said they will be integrating D&S with other Google apps - and that the Web makes this easy, with XML and similar open standards. He said "you're going to see more and more integration going forward. All of Google's apps will work better and better together, going forward."
Next was a question about browser compatibility issues and how that affects D&S - and indeed the future of rich web applications. Sam responded that "it is definitely an issue [...] these apps are all cutting edge - it kind of reminds me of the early days of the graphical web, when you couldn't count on the browsers to render tables correctly [...]".
But he thinks it's "just growing pains" and it'll take about a year to sort those issues out.
Also on the question of whether Ajax is better than Flash and Laszlo etc, Sam thinks that Ajax is currently more web native.
Later in the interview, Jen stresses that they're "not trying to clone desktop apps". They want to be familiar to people, "but we're trying to do something that's actually more native to the Internet, more usable on the Internet."
Sam says they've had a lot of feedback that people like the fact they're not trying to copy desktop apps. He said "copying the existing stuff just feels irrelevant to us - we're not trying to copy, we're trying to re-invent."
Both Jen and Sam re-affirmed that collaboration and sharing is their main focus with D&S, as well as being web native - rather than trying to compete on features with desktop apps.
Note: there are sound problems with the podcast, which makes it an uncomfortable recording to listen to at times. But the interview itself was great and very informative, so well done Gizbuzz.
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I've been using ritely for just over a year and am delighted to say that it is far better than MS-Word. It is' indeed' about being Web-native.
Posted by: avi | November 26, 2006 3:16 AM
I can't say it's far better but it's enough for me, and I prefer it because I never lose data and can easily search inside my documents.
Posted by: Emre Sokullu | November 26, 2006 6:10 AM
I may be the odd man out, but I love MS Office. It's quick, and everything feels "right" to me. If I had to use something different, it would be OpenOffice. I am not really a fan of office-based web-applications like Writely unless I'm at a foreign machine and want to take a quick note that I can later copy and paste into Microsoft Word.
If the features become more advanced, then I might consider. I think productivity applications have the best chance of surviving the burst of the webtop bubble.
Posted by: Robert Dewey | November 26, 2006 8:21 AM
As much as I like writely or google docs and spreadsheets as its now called I think they are rather limiting in some ways, although quite good for storing your docs and being able to search and manage them nicely.
However there is always the security issue when working on important documents. Online systems such as hotmail and others always claim to be the owners of communication flow within them. This is a factor that keeps me from using any online applications for handling important documents for my projects etc.
Posted by: Rune Wiggers | November 26, 2006 9:37 AM
My personal theory is that the audio trouble was caused by the time zone difference leading to Skype "lag", like the kind that sometimes happens on TV. (California and England are pretty far away!)
Posted by: Chris | November 26, 2006 9:48 AM
Do you think Writely is being used by **normal people** other than tech enthusiasts?
Sam: Err... I think so..
Jen: Absolutely!!
Posted by: Emre Sokullu | November 26, 2006 10:11 AM
I'm a TA for several video game project courses at USC, and I've decided to switch all of our documents over to GD&S.
The primary motivation was this: we had an excel spreadsheet that detailed the status and location of assets for each of the teams. The asset team captains had to be able to edit it, and the project teams had to be able to view it. When it was just an excel spreadsheet, one guy was in charge of merging the edits of various people on various versions of the sheet they'd emailed to him. We turned it into a Google spreadsheet, and now that guy can spend his time on more productive tasks.
The only problem so far is with the lack of versioning in spreadsheets (which they'll be adding), and the lack of an API for docs and spreadsheets (which has been requested...)
Next semester, we'll be moving all team documents over to Google Docs. It just makes it so much easier for multiple people to view and edit, as is the case in many group/classroom situations.
Posted by: Pamela Fox | November 26, 2006 11:54 PM
Pamela, that's a perfect use case for Google D&S! Thanks for sharing that.
If anyone else has similar real-world use cases for D&S, I'd love to hear them...
Posted by: Richard MacManus | November 27, 2006 12:04 AM
Peter and I actually use eiter G D+S or Zoho writer to plan our interviews. It works really well, because we can have skype up with either IM or voice chat whilst we work, and then see the changes in real time.
It would be nice to have the integration between chat and spreadsheets present in the Documents section as well.
Glad you liked the interview!
Posted by: Huw Leslie | November 27, 2006 1:18 AM
Has anyone actually used spreadsheets from NZ or Australia. I'm Sydney based and let me tell you the concept or reality of CDN ain't spread to the spreadsheet yet... if you look at the ip address behind the URL - thats U.S. based. As to whether its busy or just latency is killing it who knows but it matters here in Sydney.
Would love to see you comment on how many of these web apps physically reside in the US - therefore user experience suffers due to lack of "edge of the web" Akamai style CDN solutions, leaving us with extraordinary latency and frequent disconnects.
btw I already love and use spreadsheets. Its just driving me mad and will ultimately drive me away - unless Google starts driving their web apps out and parking them in a data centre (CDN? Helloooo?!) at least on the same continent as me.
Posted by: Dale Harper | November 27, 2006 2:42 PM
We at www.Live-Documents.com have all the features of GD&S but it is all available from WITHIN you existing Office Application. It comes with builtin security, live update (one user makes a change then all the other users who have that document get the changes automatically merged).
So you dont have to upload all your documents onto Google. You can have them on your desktop and still have all the advantages of having it online.
Try it out at www.live-documents.com.
Posted by: Kaushal | November 27, 2006 10:20 PM