Very interesting.. I wonder how much functionality can online-excel application have. Does anyone else know about existing excel-type applications online?

numsum.com
irows.com

From the New York Times:

Google executives said today that the program would make it possible for Internet users to upload two common spreadsheet and data formats, Excel and C.S.V. Once the data is on Google's Web servers, it will be possible for two or more people to simultaneously edit spreadsheet documents and chat about them using Google's instant messaging program.

The new service will be able to handle several hundred formulas used to manipulate data in Excel, but it will not handle more complex functions like Excel macros, said Jonathan Rochelle, the Google Spreadsheets product manager.

nytimes.com/2006/06/05/technol ...

Oreo: Yes, check out ..

dabbledb.com/

> Does anyone else know about existing excel-type applications online?

Gary Price of ResourceShelf.com points me to this:
zohosheet.com [Edit: fixed URL, thanks Michael!]

umm, that link is a parked page for me...

You can digg this here:
digg.com/technology/Google_Spr ...

try

spreadsheets.l.google.com....

ping spreadsheet.google.com:

pinging spreadsheets.l.google.com [216.239.63.91] with 32 bytes of data: reply from 216.239.63.91: bytes=32 time=273ms TTL=236 ......

go to spreadsheets.l.google.com, it's redirected to Google Homepage, now.

spreadsheet.google.com returns a 404

Thanks Haochi, I updated the post...

thanks for fixing the url P.L.
I noticed the mistake soon after I posted but for the past several days access to Blogger has been spotty for me and the rest of the RS team. That's why, next week both ResourceShelf and DocuTicker will move (after 5 years) to a new platform.

Why does this follow the Writely acquistion? Writely never had a spreadsheet function. I think the release of Google Word is more likely to come first.

By the way: I know people expect a Google Office soon but other than all us guys who cant wait to get our hands on anything Googley who is going to use this product?

Also (sorry to triple post) this "limited post" does this mean first come first served?

In which case what time is 9 AM Google Time in the UK?

Sam : Solly for the triple reply :)-

take PDT – Zulu and thats what you'll get for time in GMT :)-
"who is going to use this product?" – Me
"Why does this follow the Writely acquistion?" – Capex Flow for Q3/06!

google.com/googlespreadsheets/ ...

Wow, nice catch Dan.

Dan YOU ROCK!

Anyone got an email back?

You seen that instant chat feature alongside the spreadsheet? That is awesome.

GREAT!!! Thanks Dan

Currently, Google Spreadsheets is a limited test. You are required to provide them your email address then they will send you an invitation – first-come, first-served.

Good Luck...:)

The internal links in the FAQ/Tour all go back to spreadsheet.google.com

It was LIVE!

google.com/googlespreadsheets/ ...

I've already had to create a bookmarks folder with all the Google links I use every day. If Google keeps adding to their product list, they're going to have to come up with a better way for me to access all their stuff. Maybe a drop-down menu on the main Google page?

It's live. I sent in my email to test it.

That's crazy... First day of speculations... product is out now??? Google worked fast behind the scenes..

Do you think that this is a dummy signup? Other sources say that Spreadsheets is due to be released at 6AM...by which time? Could this just be a non-functioning signup? Because if you enter any gibberish into the box, it will still submit it. It doesn't check for the e-mail to be valid nor for it to be a google account.

Interesting thought. Might be true.. We'll see tomorrow morning. As for now, I'm signed up.

> That's crazy... First day of speculations... product is out now???
> Google worked fast behind the scenes..

Not necessarily fast, just silently.

True.

I wish Google Spreadsheets = iRows + More. :-(

From what I've read, the release time is due to be 9:00 AM EDT/6:00 AM PDT

Get up early!

It's open!!!!

By following the link, I am able to subscribe to an invitation or something. It is online.

Sam:
> Why does this follow the Writely acquistion?
> Writely never had a spreadsheet function. I
> think the release of Google Word is more likely
> to come first.

I think people simply mention Google Writely (which is after all already a full-fledged Rich Text editor) because it's like "Google Excel" is following "Google Word" now in the Google Office package. And as to who's going to use it: whoever uses office products is a good target group. I mean, once you accept the paradigm that everything will move online, creating a Google Office is smart...

Everybody must promise not to sell their invites on eBay for rediculous amounts of cents.

Hmmm, will we be able to mass-invite each other by simply sharing Google Spreadsheets documents, like with Writely? :)

Thx Dan, for the first Screenshots.

I thnk this is gonna be a sure winner, been using Writely for a while now, and i thnk tht is all most of us need for word processing, without bells and whistles and its fast enough, very ajaxy and accessible everywhere with a net conn..

I thnk being Platform Neutral, these tools will find a wider acceptance and to top it, its absolutely Free.

The Spreadsheet help (via InsideGoogle):
google.com/support/spreadsheet ...

> Hmmm, will we be able to mass-invite each other by simply
> sharing Google Spreadsheets documents, like with Writely? :)

I doubt it. Not in the short term anyway because it's a limited test – and if you could do that, it wouldn't be very limited... ;-)

BTW – the login page is obviously here (not that it's any good unless you've got an invite):

www.google.com/accounts/Servic ...

Although, having said that look at this...

<< How do I share a spreadsheet with other people?

Click on the "Show sharing options" link in the upper right area of your online spreadsheet. There, you can enter the email addresses of the people to either give "edit" or "view-only" access. You'll be prompted to send them an email with a link to the spreadsheet. They'll need to create or sign into an existing Google Account using the same email address in order to access the spreadsheet. Note that for now, you'll only be able to invite others using emails which are valid Google Accounts. >>

From: google.com/support/spreadsheet ...

Excellent! This is great news. Do you think Google will offer an office package? (or just put it in Google pack?) And offer an enterprise version of this?

Also, how do you suppose Google will make money from writely and google spreadsheets? ads? or something else?

From RegisteredUser on Digg:
<<Google Spreadsheets isn't meant to replace Excel. It's definitely not for power users that require complex macros or equations. And it's definitely not for people that need a mission critical spreadsheet application. This is a simple spreadsheet app for simple usage. From my observations, the casual Excel user mainly uses spreadsheets to create lists in tabular form, or they use it to create a simple personal budget. This is the target audience for Google Spreadsheets.

Take another look at the screenshot. The sample spreadsheet they show is a game schedule for a little league team. See what I mean? For people that don't need the full power and capabilities of Excel, Google is offering a simple and free alternative.>>
digg.com/technology/Google_Spr ...

[moved from: Google Web Office]

google introduces the office works.

Zoho, has an online spreadsheet app. www.zohosheet.com which supports

MultipleSheets
Charting
Formula's
Collaboration

Cheers!

> Does anyone else know about existing excel-type applications online?
ajaxxls.com/

Has any one got an Invitation yet?

Not yet, still waiting...

No not yet. I'm guess we'll have to wait til 9am ET (which is 2pm in the UK) for the invitations to be posted out.

Today Google Spreadsheets launches... and it's amazing how much Google already released during the first half of 2006:

* Google Writely
* Google China
* Google Co-op
* Google Notebook
* Google SketchUp
* Google AJAX Site Search
* Google Related Links
* Google Mars
* Google Page Creator
* Google Calendar
* Google Chat
* Google Pack

Did I miss anything?

Google Romantic

Anybody knows if some of the Writely staff is involved in Spreadsheets?

> Did I miss anything?
Google Web Toolkit and Picasa for Linux

has anyone actually received an ACK for the limted test ?

labs.google.com/faq.html#limit ...

No mails at all in my inbox (about the Spreadsheet thing)...

Pau: I'd say so. Back when Writely was pre-Google owned I had an email conversation with them regarding a spread-sheet app. At the time they were at the early stages of developing one.

I asked them about it again after Google bought them out – but of course they could only say 'no comment' :)

Google is directly competing with open source projects like OpenOffice and Sun's free StarOffice.

Google acquired Writely (word processing) and now has a spreadsheet. There was speculation last year that Google would partner with Sun to offer a version of StarOffice. Instead Google has decided to go its own way and compete with OpenOffice and StarOffice.

C/Net says "Google spreadsheets turns up heat on Excel" I don't think so. Microsoft Office is a powerful, industrial strength, client based, information worker productivity platform. Microsoft Office is moving beyond just being a collection of applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) to being a server based application platform for ISVs. Lots of companies run their business on Excel spreadsheets. Now creative start-ups are using Office as a front end User Interface to a whole variety of business applications.

I wrote a blog on this subject today dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_ ...

<<Did I miss anything?>>

yes, Google launched in Israel... :) (the company, not the website)

Wow!!! You guys never miss anything!!! Did anybody get an invite yet??

ohh yeah..
and Gmail in Hebrew and Arabic

FWIW – spreadsheets.google.com now redirects to:

spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?ne ...

which then redirects to:

www.google.com/accounts/Servic ...

which then appears to do a META / JS refresh to:

google.com/googlespreadsheets/ ...

Usually they make public the place to enter an invite code if you get one. So, that would lead me to believe that they have not yet "Launched" Of course... this could be the time that changed. Wish I had read the blog and signed up 12 hours ago! Dag!

thats odd..
this page (www.google.com/accounts/Servic ...) says the following:

<<Please note: this is a Google Labs product, which means it's just getting onto its feet, you should expect it to be a bit wobbly, and your feedback can help us get it up and running. Enjoy.>>

but its not in labs.google.com/ yet..

<Wish I had read the blog and signed up 12 hours ago!>

ditto that.. ;-)

9:00 AM here now (ET) ... no change

None Here. (We're such geeks)

The help section says there's a limit of 100 Spreadsheets per person. Does that mean the ones that are uploaded on to google, or how many different ones you can view?

I think the 2pm GMT thing was a bit wrong.

K...seriously – where is it?

Either none of us got in or it's the usual launch delay.

> Why does this follow the Writely acquistion?
> Writely never had a spreadsheet function. I
> think the release of Google Word is more likely
> to come first.
Writely had more than the online word processor; it also had a lot of collaboration features which google probably used for gspreadsheet

I hate delays. If it's released evening Google Time; I won't be awake and I want it today!
Any one want to guess what time (indicate time tone) it will be released.
My go : 5PM (GMT)

It hasn't gone live on Google labs yet, so I'm guessing it's just a launch delay. Maybe they are enjoying the blogosphere hype too much?!

i think that invitations are on teh way but not all of us will get it. Imagine how long is the list for signup?....

<< I think people simply mention Google Writely (which is after all already a full-fledged Rich Text editor) because it's like "Google Excel" is following "Google Word" now in the Google Office package. And as to who's going to use it: whoever uses office products is a good target group. I mean, once you accept the paradigm that everything will move online, creating a Google Office is smart... >>

Yes I see what you mean. From the look of some of the features perhaps they used some of the shairng features that Writely developed too.

No invite here yet either.

Don Dodge: If MS is already posting that kind of stuff, even before the product has even been launched, you must be really scared... Why???

From Don's weblog:
Don is currently Director of Business Development for Microsoft's Emerging Business Team.

Umm...make sure to check out your Gmail spam folder, maybe it's already there:P

Maybe they meant 9am PDT, why would they release it at 6am?

any correlation between today being "the day of the beast" 06/06/06 and google launching their spreadsheet? at least both are numbers things.

I dare someone to go and make the group:

Google-Labs-Google-Spreadsheets

on Google Groups.

Well, Google-Labs-Spreadsheets already exists but membership is invite only.

groups.google.com/group/Google ...

Damn. Fancy making it invite only. Surely you may want to see what people are saying about it even if you cant get into the service yourself. Also: it isn't going to stop people that are in talking about it is it?

b.l.o.g.s

My guess is that they just didn't want loads of people signing up to it posting: "When's it going to be released?!?" They'll probably open it up once Google Spreadsheets if "officially" launched.

Invite is here.

Screenshots coming.

No way...when did you sign up?

I was thinking (like JE) that it's probably 9 AM PDT, too. 6 AM (PDT) seems a little early for the folks @ Google HQ.

I got an invite

Yeah, got it too!!!

I can invite people it seems too. I have invited Philipp. We'll see if he gets an account etc.

GRR when did you people sign up?

:-(No invite for me (yet), but I was late signing up. I'm sure with all the pre-release press this received they were inundated w/ sign-ups.

When Dan posted the link above.

I am not sure whether people I share it with GET an account. Philipp if you could confirm this that would be great.

screenshot

static.flickr.com/67/161672138 ...

I received an invite from Sam for a shared document (thanks!) but clicking it only brought me back to the "sign up for an invite" page. Can you post screenshots here?

(OK, no asking for invites at this thread at this time please... it won't help anyway, sharing documents does *not* result in an invitation.)

Sorry

I have received the invites in my another email address, but I don't know how to invite, will 'share' work????

whoops i see, sorry

Ok. I am just getting the screenshots uploaded....

flickr.com/photos/davyson/sets ...

sorry

Things I notice:

You cant DRAG formulas.
When you enter stuff into the boxes the blue bit extends over the egd of the box (awkward looking).
When you merge cells you can only do it horizontally. Cells displaced vertically from each other can not be merged.
The thing they have done at the top with the different tabs for formatting / formulas etc is interesting.
CTRL + C etc did NOT work for copying. You had to use the button at the top.
Copying & pasting formulas did update them intelligently (i.e. the row number changed etc).

No invite here..... guess I was after the cut.... or they are still sending them. at what time did the invites hit your mailboxes guys?

Can you create pie charts/ graphics?

Also:

Very fast loading.
New spreadsheet opens a new windows (this is Writelyesque).
New sheets can be added to the same book at the bottom (same window).

No graphics. I think it said that in one of the press releases / news items too.

Invite hit at: 2.35 PM UK Time.

Philipp I have sent you an email. It is all ready.

You are lucky, Sam.

Dan: can you email me your address so that we can play with the chat feature.

Or add me to one of your sheets. The address is mynamegmail.com

static.flickr.com/75/161682500 ...

well, I'd say I officially missed the boat. Bummer! Maybe they'll do another few hundered later today.

Haha, got an invite!

Travis: Luckily you will experience the feel of Google Spreadsheets today. Philipp is whipping up a review.

Travis: It seems you and me are not alone. I've signed up with several e-mail addresses. None of them had the luck to receive an invite. I'll keep on waiting...

Maximo: What is your email address? Let me add you to one of my sheets (or you can add me – mynamegmail.com)

chat looks pretty cool...

is it just me or did this spreadsheet launch seem to come out of no where?

aren't there many other things that we've been speculating google to launch before this? i guess they're capable of doing whatever they want whenever they see fit.

I'm currently using dial-up from my laptop, and this thing loads very fast. I feel like I'm using a high speed connection while using it – it's faster than Gmail.

I have several other Google accounts which also got the invite. I'd be willing to donate them for the benefit of all, let me know if anybody's interested.

Sam: Sent.

maximo, i'd be interested, jonathan.w.meyergmail.com

I'd love one Maximo.

dberglind at gmail.com

Maximo, I'd love to check it out – retossoftware at gmail.com

<<it's faster than Gmail.>>

Gmail used to be instant (less than 1/10th second) for almost all of it's use. It was when it grew sooo popular that it slowed down... or maybe it is the size of our accounts? or both? You would think Google would not have the same problem that Outlook/Thunderbird has (big account = unusable)

[mynameabove[gmail.com

I've got my finger's crossed!! :)

Maximo if you have one left trex005 at (the usual gmail domain)

I meant for the benefit of the entire forum. Maybe that was a mishap. Lets wait and see how many people get invites. I'm sure Philipp wouldn't appreciate this thread turning into a request forum. So I suspend my offer temporarily – it was done in the heat of "I'm-so-cool-I-got-a-beta-invite" insanity. Sorry.

Maximo, If you still have an invite My email is page (at) zenofip (.) com
   Thank you

Just got the invite to Spreadsheet. Took it for a spin and find it pretty darn good. Almost like Excel. Will work it a little more in due course.

Lol.... that was quite a scurry to give you an Email address :)
Of course, I could plead my case :) I always give extensive product reviews on Google's new products. :o)

Alright... probably did not work... but it was at least worth a shot!

Sunil... when you say "Just" what time did it hit your inbox. maybe they are still sending?

It is nice to see Google picking features up from other services. Lets see:

-- Chat from Gmail.
-- Autosave from Gmail.
-- Maybe some stuff from Writely for the sharing (it live updates).

maximo, did you say signed up around midnight?

<maybe they are still sending?>

i sure hope they are!!

Travis, that was about 30 mins ago.

Do people who have the invite now have access to the google spreadsheets group?

Oh. Good question...

Answer: No.

I got invited! I'm in...

What is your email? You can join the big test.

It's not out on Google labs yet. I bet the are still sending out emails. Hopefully I'll get mine soon.

dpneal, nope, do not see any invites as yet.

Anyone who is in... email me with your address and you can be invited into the test sheet that me, Maximo, and Philipp have been playing with.

Can you send me an invite please? shin.richardgmail.com

tomkidding.com/uize/uize-js-ap ...

Google could use something like this if they come out with a power point replacement

I say again (as Philipp said) there is no 'invite' capability. Sharing a document with a non-invitee does *NOT* get them a Google Spreadsheets account. Sorry.

What's your email Sam? I'll send you my email there.