Mountain View, California — In a fervent bid to dethrone Microsoft Office as the software giant prepares to launch the latest version of its Office software suite next month, Google Inc. on Monday at its inaugural Atmosphere 2010 Cloud Computing conference, announced the addition of cool new features to Google Docs, that not only blends in more familiar to Microsoft Office users, but also take collaboration to whole new heights.
The Mountain View-based web search behemoth at its Atomosphere 2010 event stated that it is updating its word-processing and spreadsheet software that would offer additional editing features and help developers improve performance and deliver more flexibility in providing new features more quickly. Public preview versions of Docs’ spreadsheet and document editors and a new drawings app are online now.
“When they come striking saying that you need to upgrade to Office 2010, you should know that you now have a greater choice, a viable replacement for the vast majority of your users,” said Anil Sabharwal, product manager of Google Apps, during a cloud computing conference at the company’s campus on Monday.
The enhancements, however, will also abandon Google Gears in favor of HTML 5 for offline functionality starting May 3. For non-connected scenarios, the new foundation will take advantage of growing standards within the HTML 5 specification to handle offline work in Docs.
“We realize that this is an important feature for some of you, and we are working hard to deliver a new and improved HTML5-based offline option back to Google Docs,” Google wrote in a blog post. “Please note that this change only concerns Google Docs. We will continue to support offline access for Gmail and Google Calendar.”
The search giant claims that the latest version of its Google Docs online software loads documents faster and the word processing editor in Google Docs now offers real-time collaboration. This upgrade fructifies just months after Google acquired AppJet, whose EtherPad product offered very similar functionality. It also allows users to import documents more accurately without losing many of the formatting of the original document, attempting to address one of users’ most common frustrations with software that runs online as opposed to on a computer.
The improved word processing editor also offers some basic editing features, too, have now made their way into Google Docs. According to the blog post, this will include “formatting options like a margin ruler for adjusting margins, better numbering and bullets, and more flexible in-document image handling.
The document editor will also check spelling as you type, pretty similar to the way Microsoft Word has done for some time. Moreover, in an obvious nod to Word’s change-tracking tools, Google’s editor will now allow notes and comments to be linked to any part of the document.
The spreadsheets editor in Google Docs now boasts a familiar professional-grade enhancements: These new rebuilds includes a formula bar, cell auto-fill capability; you can also drag and drop columns to reorder them. Google says that, thanks to modern Javascript engines in today’s browsers, the new, optimized version of the spreadsheet tool is speedier and snappier than ever.
“The current tools for collaboration are fractured,” said Sabharwal. “Microsoft Office focuses on the individual author. At the heart of every modern workplace is collaboration. We built in collaboration from the ground up. It makes document editing as simple and natural as having a conversation. Launched in 2006, Google Docs is like your kids: It is amazing how fast they grow up. About 18 months ago we realized we were hitting a wall. We were innovating rapidly, but we needed to take it up a notch.”
View Slideshow here. (Courtesy: PCMAG.com)
The so called “cloud computing” approach is becoming an increasingly bloody battleground for the two technology heavyweights, as the online search giant attacks the software king at its castle doors. Google’s announcement on Monday symbolizes an effort to close the gap, even as Microsoft is battling to widen it and defend its premium with major cloud and collaboration upgrades to Office 2010.
“Microsoft is coming out of the old world, the client-server model, and Google is in the new world, the always-on model,” said Katherine Egbert, software analyst at Jefferies & Co. “They are heading to the same place but coming from different directions.”
Google Docs is free for consumers and runs $50 per business user per year, while Office 2010 will range from $99 to $499 at retail, depending on the version.
Other Cloud Office players are building out their offerings:
Microsoft is advertising its Office Live software+services as a competitor to Google’s Docs mixing both traditional offline access with Cloud collaboration and versioning. While Office 2010, set to be available to businesses on May 12 and consumers sometime in June, is packed with upgrades too. The biggest steps forward are improved collaboration capabilities, including social networking features in the new version of SharePoint, and broad support of cloud computing.
The goal was “to provide the best product experience across the PC, phone and browser,” said Chris Capossela, senior in the Microsoft Business Division, during an interview on Friday.
Microsoft is also rolling out Office Starter, a free, light version of the product that will come pre-installed on new desktops and laptops. It replaces Office Works.
Apple, is another player in the Cloud Computing Office, is beginning to build out its iWork.com which at the moment has only rudimentary online tools.
Zoho also offers a competitive Cloud Computing Office Service (with Google integration!) with more features but without the backing of Google.
Check out the new features in the video below: