Content Matters

While the blogosphere continues to resonate with comments on Google's acquisition of YouTube, Google quietly yesterday released Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a (very) lightly integrated version of Google Spreadsheets plus Google Word Processing (past acquisition Writely).  In playing with the app, it looks like there's no real integration yet between the two applications; for example, you can't imbed a spreadsheet into a document.  The "integration" is merely placing the two application in a single location with a common UI and shared tools like file lists.  There's also some integration with email, as files emailed to the email account registered with Google docs automatically appear in the file list.

It's apparent that Google pushed this release to be timed with this week's Office 2.0 conference in San Francisco, hence the light integration. 

That being said, it's clear that Google intends to create an Office-like suite that, in time may have an impact on Microsoft.  Google's model of putting betas out there then enhancing them over time, suggests that the combination of Writely, Spreadsheets and Calendar has the potential to gain traction.

Google Docs is unlikely to gain adoption in the enterprise.  Security-conscious companies are not about to entrust critical documents and spreadsheets to Google.  There are a number of markets where a free hosted office suite could take hold, particularly the education market.  The collaborative features, while modest today, could also drive adoption in niche markets over time. 

For more on Google Docs, take a look at Michael Arrington's comments, Inside Google and CNET.