
Google Docs vs MS Docs. Wondering why Google Docs still sucks? - bdfh42
http://whydoeseverythingsuck.com/2010/04/google-docs-vs-ms-docs-wondering-why.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WhyDoesEverythingSuck+%28Why+does+everything+suck%3F%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
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mmastrac
His argument basically boils down to that Google docs will always lag behind
the desktop version of Office and, therefore, will always suck. On the other
hand, Microsoft "clearly ... will have better editing features."

"I guess Google could just give Docs away" (they do already)

"Google's efforts with Docs seems like such a competitive joke" (even though
they satisfy the needs of most basic document/spreadsheet authors, which is to
say a _huge_ market).

The author conflates feature-parity with the market leader with product
quality.

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andrewf
I disagree; I think the author's central thrust is that Google Docs hasn't
improved as quickly as people expected. It's been around in its current
incarnation (post-Writely rewrite) for 3.5 years now.

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Adaptive
While I don't agree that Google Docs sucks (I think it's "adequate" - not a
ringing endorsement - for a simple majority of users' needs) I would like to
see improvements.

Here's why they are coming: Chrome OS.

Chrome OS is predicated on solid HTML 5 support and web apps just like Google
Docs. You can't sell a billion Chrome OS netbooks to IT departments without a
solid office suite.

We just saw gears getting phased out, now we'll see HTML 5 offline support
phased in and then we'll see some new features.

I've gone crazy waiting for new features as well in google apps. For instance,
contact sharing. Seriously. Why so long? As a consultant in these matters I'd
like a better roadmap so I can reassure clients that features are either on or
off the horizon.

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anigbrowl
Me neither. I've been using for everything for about a year now. when I
upgraded to Win 7 I forgot to reinstall my copy of MS office and I don't
really miss it. Microsoft's product is better but I don't need the advanced
features all that often.

 _I've gone crazy waiting for new features as well in google apps. For
instance, contact sharing._

Agree that further integration would be good, and things like project
management and so on. Google has been advertising heavily recently about
companies 'going Google' by switching to Docs, and there's great potential yet
to be exploited.

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apu
_Presumably one of the most important initiatives at Google outside of search
has got to be Google Docs. Having a platform for people to create and edit
documents on the web has to have been seen as a critical feature._

Why? It's not at all clear to me why Docs should be "one of the most important
initiatives at Google." Since advertising brings in the lion's share of
Google's revenues, their priorities are probably:

1\. Search - where most of the advertising money currently comes from

2\. Android - where most of the advertising money will eventually come from

Also, considering that google's enemy-du-jour is now Apple, not MS, I wouldn't
be surprised if Docs has slipped even further down the priority list.

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kno
A huge company like Google can not only rely on search and people liking their
search to survive. They are always looking over their shoulder at this point,
looking out for any new "Cool" company that will threatens their search bread.
I think folks at Google are a bit worry at this time because the only reason
why people still go for Google instead of Yahoo is still mostly the Cool
Factor and likability thing; that is not a solid platform for a company to
rely on.

So I think with Docs Google tried hard as they do every day to position
themselves outside of search. It’s like a great singer with only one popular
song, who tries hard to come up with new stuff without convincing his fans.

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rbanffy
I can only wonder how long until the whole model behind Word gets perceived as
completely obsolete.

Word comes from the ages when you edited a document, passed it along and then
printed it for someone who should read it. This is not what we do anymore.

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emarcotte
I'm not sure about this, the only part I don't see happening anymore (at
least, not as often) is printing. We still create and edit documents, then
pass them along (email, IM, web, etc). Are you saying we'll have some
completely new concept beyond documents?

That said, I still do see lots of printing. For example when we group together
for discussions it is a whole lot easier to have a paper copy that I can
doodle on, make notes, etc than to try and drag a laptop in (tablet or not).

~~~
rbanffy
> Are you saying we'll have some completely new concept beyond documents?

Don't know about you, but just about every important technical document here
resides in a versioned wiki. If we print it for, like you say, discussions,
the doodles are usually merged with the document in the wiki when the
discussion is over. The wiki page (or pages) is _the_ document. It retains
history, authorship and is the canonical reference for that information.

That said, this is more common in the IT-related areas. Lawyers, among others,
tend to resist technical innovation. I just imagine how hard it was for them
to adopt typewriters.

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akmiller
I haven't used Microsoft Office as long as I can remember. I keep OpenOffice
installed on my machines just so I'll be able to open certain documents that
other people inevitably send me. For my uses google docs and basic text
editors suffice and I imagine that there are millions of others like myself.

Lightweight, efficient, and fast are the core features I need.

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benhedrington
Not a fan of this article, many inconsistencies in it as @mmastrac points out
but to be honest in the big company I work in points of view held by people
making the decisions of what we all use are similar as of now so having this
out is important.

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vinhboy
It is just me? I cannot find any reason, or arguments stated in this article.
Just an opinion.

My opinion is, Google Docs rocks because 1) extremely portable, a keyboard and
a chair is all you need 2) sharing of documents make it very useful 3) can
convert many different formats and export to PDF.

I have yet to find any reason to use anything else.

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neilc
_I have yet to find any reason to use anything else._

For lightweight text editing and easy document sharing, GDocs is perfectly
adequate. For more serious document preparation (i.e. when you care what the
output looks like), it still has a long way to go. The recent improvements are
great, but I'm a little surprised Google haven't devoted more resources to it.

~~~
gte910h
I'd really really like to see an export API which exposes the document
features and allows people to export differently/to different things.

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hkuo
Hooray for competition! This can only spur Google a bit to improve Google
Doc's feature set. Why does the author think one service must live and one
service must die? There's always room for choice when services offer
advantages over each other.

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gabeiscoding
Should probably take into considerations the upgrades to Google Docs that are
currently being rolled out (<http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-
google-docs.html>). Wave like real-time collaborative editing, entirely new
backed that doesn't depend on browser editing quirks ec. I'm looking forward
to them and think they will solve a lot of the annoyances I have had with
document editing with Docs.

I say annoyances, because the value of collaborative editing and online
sharing outweigh them.

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acg
The only thing right about this article is that office applications online are
not as mature as the desktop.

It would be much fairer to point out that applications in the browser are
limited because the browser platform needs further evolution to make
applications more usable and reliable. Google has taken quite a lead in this
area. Including mechanisms for printing wherever you are, speeding up the
browser and allowing users to work off-line. All without plugins.

Microsoft's offering relies on Silverlight for some features.

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emehrkay
I went to the microsoft docs site and didnt see an editor. You can edit docs
via that website? If not, what is this guy comparing?

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abp
"Google Docs vs MS Docs. Wondering why Google Docs still sucks?"

I assume because Google puts a lot of work in the api design.

Thats why it takes longer.

