Google formally declares war on Microsoft

By theavidgeek
in Back Page News

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Grand Master

Malisk

Posted
Posted
"free word-processing" sounds cool to me :yes:

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Not that it's exactly a new concept. ;)

But I guess you mean in combination with being online, and then I think it would be a killer online service. Worse than MS Office or not, it would still be incredibly useful because you'd be able to access it from basically anywhere.

It would do for Office applications in the way webmail enhance e-mail usage!

Grand Master

Malisk

Posted
Posted
Ok Google...what is the catch?? How many freakin ads do we get to sit through while using it???

I'm sure this is NOT going to be free.? Google has to make Trillions from somewhere.

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Google may have their usual AdWords system, but also maybe not, as Google Earth hasn't, and that's an INSANE bandwidth consumer. You never know with Google... I have no idea really how they can make so much money from the easily overlooked AdWords alone, but they seem to do it, even if they don't use it everywhere such as on Google Maps & Earth.

Explorer

mica

Posted
Posted
i'l always prefer microsoft over google, google talk is pretty rubbish and if they are planning on making their new apps with the same GUI i dont think i'll bother, microsoft's office 12 looks amazing and i dont think google could top that, especially as a free product... soon u'll be able to install windows and have ms office built in as part of the package, inside the windows folder /windows/office/ google make excellent web products, their email is truly amazing and so is the search, a browser from google would be great with all those features built right in but office products...nahh!!!!!

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truly agree!!

Experienced

Ramble

Posted
Posted
Ya What I love the Google vs Microsoft wars is that Google completely reinvents the wheel in a more pratical sensible way, EVERY time. Microsoft, is just a lost child at this point following what ever is in front of it. Have you seen the microsoft earth? Come on. Completely ripped off Google.

Microsoft is sad, they should stick to what they do best, and that's suck.

586632279[/snapback]

Wow, shows you know nothing. Google does not 'reinvent' the wheel, they dont really do anything original.

Oh, and as far as my knowledge goes, MS had the idea of MSN Earth for quite a few years now.

Your obviously a cretin, so i'll leave you to ponder on my words..

Nice one, always nice to see a company go up against Microsoft :D

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Everytime a company goes up against Microsoft, they get wiped off the face of the Earth, Google is not wise doing this.

Grand Master

Malisk

Posted
Posted
I don't like Sun too :p And their stupid java.

There's still nothing to woory about, Microsoft Office is 1000% better than any other "office" suite

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However, Microsoft's problem has lately been that their customers don't NEED an Office suite incredibly feature packed. That's why plenty currently use Office 97 and 2000 over five years after their releases. And IMO OpenOffice caught up with *these* two a rather long time ago. I think the borders are blurring as OOo and MS Office are both "good enough" for most uses these days, and that's what matters to the end-users in the end, not if MS Office has e.g. a new UI or not... I think it's really minimal advantages in the end. People spend most of their time writing, typing on a keyboard, and making average looking documents. Do a Word document honestly look far more advanced to you compared to 10 years back? I think I wouldn't even spot the difference from a printed document. And I'll be damned if they haven't even managed to make users able to compose docs faster either.

What would make a difference though is if a commercial offline alternative would suddenly get competition from a free online alternative. I believe that has the potential to make a difference a polished UI and a couple of features could only dream of. It's an entirely new business model Microsoft is miles behind at achieving it seems today. MS Office 12 is about the same as 10 years back in that regard.

Grand Master

digitalsoft

Posted
Posted

imo google are getting a bit out of control.. i personally wouldnt use this software as i havent liked a single piece of software released from google. and i cant really see them taking the market over microsoft especially as microsofts new office 12 comming next year, which is truely excillent, agreed by paul thurrot ;)

Grand Master

dragon2611

Posted
Posted

even if they are using openoffice the extra funding and publicty openoffice/star office will get is probably a goodthing as long as it doesnt get filled with google ads left right and center.

Also an online interface would be rather usefull the abilty to write a document from anyones computer without worrying if they have office installed would be great.

Grand Master

Malisk

Posted
Posted (edited)
Everytime a company goes up against Microsoft, they get wiped off the face of the Earth, Google is not wise doing this.

586632582[/snapback]

So you honestly believe the majority of Internet users search with MSN Search!? Google has practically erased MSN Search from the map in web searching, even after MS boldly released their "Google killer".

They beat MS to a pulp once again with Google Earth despite Virtual Earth, regardless if MS had TerraServer before. It doesn't matter; people loved Google Earth/Maps. They didn't like old black&white photos. MS has all reasons to monitor Google's actions closely from now on, regarding the web services business. A lot of people also like/love Google, and that doesn't go in Microsoft's favor either.

Edited by Jugalator
Proficient

Bryan000

Posted
Posted

I'm interested, but it will need some compelling features if I'm to use it over OpenOffice 2.0 or MS Office 2003. I assume (hope?) that it saves in the new OpenOffice.org 2.x format so I can edit the documents with it...

But I won't deny that it is very sweet having a free office suite available from any browser. :)

Mentor

clonk

Posted
Posted
Ya What I love the Google vs Microsoft wars is that Google completely reinvents the wheel in a more pratical sensible way, EVERY time. Microsoft, is just a lost child at this point following what ever is in front of it. Have you seen the microsoft earth? Come on. Completely ripped off Google.

Microsoft is sad, they should stick to what they do best, and that's suck.

586632279[/snapback]

Ok, for starters, the google earth technology is based on the keyhole program, which they bought. Google maps is inspired by mapquest. Google used to link to mapquest when you entered addresses. Microsoft has talked for ages about online delivery of applications in this manner, using a subscription. Google is more like microsoft than you may care to imagine.

Grand Master

Master Shake

Posted
Posted

Look what Firefox did for browsing. The least that this will do is force Microsoft to improve it's product and lower the price. Maybe something innovative will come from this. Competition is ALWAYS good. Things really go downhill when there is no competition (windows).

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