Another spreadsheet application is unveiled. Big whoop. But hold on, maybe it is a big deal. The New York Times seems to think so.
Stepping up its attack on Microsoft’s core business, Google plans to make available on Tuesday a test version of a Web-based spreadsheet program that is intended to make it simple to edit and share lists and data online.
The company said that the free program, called Google Spreadsheets, would be able to read and create files in the format used by Excel, the Microsoft spreadsheet software that is installed on millions of personal computers.
The spreadsheet service is another step in Google’s steady march toward creating its own computing universe that is an alternative to desktop PC software now dominated by Microsoft.
I started using web-based Ta-da Lists and Backpack from 37 Signals recently. I’m not totally sold on it yet, but I can see how it might catch on, especially among people computing from multiple machines.
