A spreadsheet in your browser? A word processor on the Web? These days, SaaS
(software as a service) is all the rage, and the success of Web-based upstarts
like Salesforce.com has sent vendors searching for ever more categories of
software to bring online. If you believe Google, virtually all software will be
Web-based soon -- and as if to prove it, Google now offers a complete suite of
office productivity applications that run in your browser.
Google isn't the only one. A number of competitors are readying Web-based office
suites of their own -- most prominently Zoho, but even Microsoft is getting in
on the act. In addition to the typical features of desktop productivity suites,
each offering promises greater integration with the Web, including collaboration
and publishing features not available with traditional apps.
[ Looking for a way to benchmark Windows 7 versus Vista or XP? Check out
OfficeBench 7, a cross-version test script that uses your existing installation
of Microsoft Office to evaluate your PC's performance. | Read InfoWorld's first
look at Microsoft Office 2010. ]
But how serious are they? Even with today's modern browsers, can browser-based
apps truly substitute for Microsoft Office for real-world work? I decided to
find out. Armed with a selection of demo documents and actual work from my own
files, I put Google Docs, Zoho, and the Technical Preview version of Microsoft's
Office Web Apps to the test. Predictably, the results were mostly a
disappointment -- but my experience yielded unexpected surprises, as well.
Google Docs: Your desktop, online
No company is more jazzed about Web-based applications than Google, so you'd
expect its suite to be the best, right? Wrong. In fact, the most amazing thing
about Google Docs turned out to be just how woefully inadequate for serious work
it actually is.
When you log in to Google Docs, you're greeted with a familiar, Google-style UI:
spare, reserved, understated, even elegant. But while this trademark approach
works wonders for Google's search products, with Google Docs it belies a paucity
of features that's instantly frustrating.
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