Online Office Suites and the Geeks Who Use Them

Everyone has probably by now heard the news about the poor adoption rate of online productivity suites like Google Docs. Some rumor mongers in the Microsoft camp are staking claim in the official demise of online office suites even after the recent launch of Office Live. I have to admit I was in the red pie slice of users that had heard of online office productivity products but had yet to try them out until just recently. Maybe I would be more apt to get excited about every little Google product announcement if they didn’t slap a beta tag on everything out of the chutes. Many of my fellow geeks operating under the “latest and greatest = best” mindset were clamoring about Google Docs the day it was released and then again and again each time new features were added. I finally took the plunge and switched to GMail after I realized it was fruitless to resist Google’s attempt to index the world’s information.

After using GMail and Google Docs for some time now I praise them as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Well, sometimes anyway, other times I curse their existence and wonder if they will ever “just work”. Even basic needs are not satisfied - organizing emails into folders to keep your inbox tidy or the ability to copy the contents of a cell in your spreadsheet and paste it into another application or browser window. Of course, the beauty of web enabled document editing and email lies in the centralized storage and universal accessibility. Try sharing an excel spreadsheet that contains contact and address information for your entire graduating class with all 452 classmates. With Google Docs it is simple. With Microsoft it would require everyone have Microsoft Office and Groove software installed and configured. My guess is if they aren’t a Microsoft employee they probably don’t have Groove installed (btw Groove is Windows only - sorry Mac and Linux users).

Web based office applications are far from dead. They are definitely in their nascent state as we come to the end of 2007. More than just knowing they exist, there needs to be a cultural shift in mindset about information storage and a deeper level of trust in the SAAS providers before the average Joe will make the switch. Do you trust Google to store your documents forever? Are you concerned about the security implications of one company having access to all the world’s information? If the answers to these questions can be changed from no to yes Google Docs will have 25% of the office productivity market share in 3 years. Done’ t believe me? Ask Steve Ballmer how much of the browser market share Firefox managed to secure since version 1.0 was released in 2004.