Google Docs: Will it be the “Office” killer?

By ExecutiveBrief Staff

Don’t be confused by Google Docs. It’s not just a word processor but a spreadsheet and a presentation as well. Will it kill Office?

The spartan-looking and powerfully built Google search. The intuitive and user-friendly email client Gmail. The amazing instant messenger client (with voice to boot!) Google Talk. 

And now, the innovative Google Docs, a Web-based office productivity suite, built using AJAX technology, the fundamental Web 2.0 technology.

In Google Docs, Google Almighty aims to “webify” [and alter our perspective of] the way we do office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Is defeat for productivity suite king Microsoft’s MS Office just around the corner? Or should it be threatened by the newcomer at all? Let’s see if it’s well worth pitting the two against each other.

Vital Statistics
The term “Google Docs” is somehow a misnomer, as the application not only carries word processing capabilities (as the name readily suggests), but also includes spreadsheets, and more recently, presentations. Previously known as “Google Docs and Spreadsheets” to signify the two files it was designed to manipulate, it had been shortened to simply “Google Docs” after including Google Presentations. Who in his right mind would name a product “Google Docs and Spreadsheets and Presentations and Kitchen Sink?” Now Google Docs inconveniently refers to the whole suite and the word processor as well.

Nevertheless, the Google combo presents itself as an alternative, albeit an online one, to Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, in a one-to-one correspondence.  Should the rookies prepare for their first defeat, or is MS Office’s time nearly up?

Round 1: The battle for word processor supremacy
For starters, Google Docs may be run in most modern web browsers, such as Internet Explorer 6+ and Firefox 1.5.0.6+ with no additional installs required. Google Docs can be launched immediately by opening one’s browser of choice, going to http://docs.google.com, logging in using one’s Google Account credentials (easily and freely obtainable), and voila, online word processor is ready to use.

Google Docs includes the basics of word processing, such as font management, text color management, paragraph spacing and alignment management, and list management. Unicode, the character set which includes non-Latin alphabets such as Chinese and Korean, is also supported in Google Docs (browser configuration may be necessary). Spelling detection is possible; Google Docs underlines in red words that it deems misspelled. However, for people who have been spoiled by spelling correction and suggestion, they will be disappointed. The user is left to his own device in finding the correct spelling of the distracting red-underlined word.