ReadWriteWeb

The Google Docs team unveiled an attractive new chart creation tool today for Google's spreadsheet tool. New features include automatically recommended chart types based on the data you've input, more control over colors and imagery, advanced visualizations and the ability to embed dynamically updated charts around the web.

ReadWriteWeb's COO and spreadsheet man Sean Ammirati said the service still doesn't look as powerful as Excel, of course. "Honestly, though, it's getting closer and those visualizations are cool," he says. "I could also see bringing Excel sheets over for some of them." Check out the demonstration video below.

Disclosure: Socialtext is a ReadWriteWeb sponsor.

On the 30th anniversary of the original killer business application, enterprise platform Socialtext has brought wiki spreadsheet app SocialCalc in to the light of day.

Created in collaboration with VisiCalc co-creator Dan Bricklin, the long-awaited app is the social enterprise successor to Bricklin's original innovation. Begun in 2006 and now in public beta, its a more fully-functional version of his concept of WikiCalc.

Along with the public beta of SocialCalc, the company has transformed its offering in to a freemium price plan dubbed "Socialtext Free 50." The 50-user version will see their collaborative software become available free of cost for the first time.

The iPhone is clearly making some inroads in the business world, and RoamBi, which launched today, is one of the many new companies that is trying to win over some of these business customers. RoamBi's mission is to make spreadsheets readable and browsable on the iPhone (iTunes link), and its designers have done a great job at turning dry and unreadable spreadsheets into highly useful interactive mini-apps. These 'apps' allow users to visualize their data on the small iPhone screen, where they would otherwise be squinting at columns full of unreadable numbers.

Like a lot of people, I had my problems with Google Apps this week. Sure, Google "feels my pain" but they also lost my confidence. And confidence is a delicate thing. What crashed for me was Spreadsheet. That has always been the weakest component for Google and the strongest for Microsoft. Excel rocks, its just a tad behind the times on collaboration.

But in this post we explain how Google could still win the spreadsheet game by buying eXpress Corp.