Google tests Web-based spreadsheet

By Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. is going back to the future by reinventing the

spreadsheet as a Web-based application, seeking a simpler on-ramp for consumers

to input data into databases, the company said.

The Web search leader will begin a limited trial on Tuesday of the classic

software application defined by its grid of rows and columns and simple

calculating capabilities that allow users to enter and organize information in

structured form.

The electronic spreadsheet pioneered in 1978 by VisiCalc is remembered as the

PC era's first "killer application."

The Mountain View, California-based company said its free, Web-based

application can be shared with up to ten users simultaneously, improving upon a

key limitation of Microsoft Corp.'s Excel, the dominant stand-alone spreadsheet.

"Many people already organize information into spreadsheets," said

Jonathan Rochelle, product manager for Google Spreadsheets, as the trial product

is known. "Where they are struggling is to share it."

Google is joining a variety of Web start-ups that already offer Web-based

spreadsheets, including JotSpot, a company founded by Internet pioneer Joe

Kraus, Thinkfree Corp. and Smallthought Systems Inc.'s Dabble DB. Microsoft has

begun offering its own add-on technology for sharing spreadsheets.

For now, the Google Spreadsheet, which can import or export data from Excel's

.xls format or the open Comma Separated Value (.csv) format, is aimed at small

work teams in social life or small business, not big enterprises, Rochelle said.

The program is designed to help people organize their own information and

make it more easily accessible to others via the Web. Data in the spreadsheets

are saved automatically with each user action over the Web onto Google computer

servers.

Google Spreadsheet relies on technology the company acquired from a small

Wall Street software developer it bought last year called 2Web Technologies,

which in 2004 introduced tools to convert Microsoft Excel spreadsheets into Web

services.

"What is missing is the ability to share data more easily,"

Rochelle said.

Users can sort data and take advantage of 200 functions and common

spreadsheet formulas for doing basic calculations of numerical data. Google is

working on improving printing, charts, filtering and "drag and drop"

features, he said.

Rochelle said his company would be studying how much demand there is for

Google Spreadsheet to work with Google Base, an online database service that

allows Google users to post various types of information online.

"Databases in themselves are really hard to program," said Charlene

Li, an Internet analyst with Forrester Research. "What people use

spreadsheets for is low-end databases," she said.

Google Base is viewed by analysts as a stepping stone into the classified

advertising or e-commerce markets, by helping users feature relevant information

on Google's main search index, the Froogle shopping site and Google Local

search.

Google Spreadsheet is one of a string of user productivity applications that

Google has been testing, including the Writely word processing application it

acquired earlier this year and its internally developed Google Calendar.

Users interested in experimenting with the application can go to Google Labs

(http://labs.google.com/) to sign up on Tuesday. An undisclosed number of users

can join the initial trial phase on a first-come, first-served basis, it said.