Have Laptop Will Travel

Google’s Web-based Spreadsheet Application

Originally posted on June 5, 2006 @ 4:47 pm

Google is expected to launch a Web-based spreadsheet application sometime tomorrow, a move that would be latest challenge to Microsoft. Can you smell what the Rock’s… uh, I mean can you smell what Google’s cooking? Hehe.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the Google Spreadsheet would follow by a couple of months the company’s purchase of Writely, a Web-based word processor.

Last month I posted about the Google Dell partnership in which Dell agreed to ship 10s of million of computers with Google software installed.

As you can tell, Google is really becoming a serious threat to Microsoft. Yay! I’m all for it because even though I use Microsoft products, I’m all for Open Source and freedom of information. Google likes to share the knowledge. Microsoft likes to corner the market and charge way to much for their products.

Many people think Google is evil but I don’t agree. Why you ask? Because from what I know, Google buys or develops great technology, then they give it back to the people free of charge. To me, that’s not evil. Microsoft should take a step back and look at how Google does things. Bill and his crew might learn something new. I wonder if Bill Gates owns any Google stock?

Adobe and Google team up for Toolbar

Originally posted on June 21, 2006 @ 9:26 pm

Earlier today Adobe announced that it’s offering the Google Toolbar to its customers as a free download.

This is a great way to take Google search with you anywhere on the web. You can access Google search capabilities from any website, block pop-ups, see search suggestions as you type, personalize your toolbar by adding buttons from your favorite sites, and more.

Check out the Official Adobe Press Release for more information.

Google Spreadsheets

Originally posted on June 6, 2006 @ 10:16 am

I posted yesterday afternoon that Google would be launching Google Spreadsheets, a Web-based spreadsheet application that will be able to read and write Microsoft Excel files.

Google SpreadsheetsAs of this morning you can take it for a spin at http://spreadsheets.google.com

According to a Google report, Google Spreadsheets is considered to be “alpha” software. The testing will be limited to an invitation only basis only but maybe you’ll be one of the lucky ones? Incase you were wondering, I was picked as one of the lucky prototype testers :)

Something I find very cool about this new application is it makes use of some of Google’s other software, such as Google Talk for online collaboration.

It’s completely web-based which is nice. All you need is a Internet connection and a Web browser – your spreadsheets are stored securely online. You can even save your spreadsheets to your own computer in CSV, XLS and HTML formats.

Google’s tribute to Conan Doyle

Originally posted on May 22, 2006 @ 12:14 am

Google Celebrates Conan Doyle’s (1859-1930) Birthday with a fancy new Sherlock Holmes inspired logo:

Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Scotland on May 22, 1859. He studied medicine there, eventually serving as a physician in the Boer War (1899-1902).

Conan Doyle’s fame rests on his creation of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Doyle published his first Holmes tale, A Study in Scarlet, in 1887.

Google U.S. Government Search

Originally posted on June 15, 2006 @ 8:47 am

Google U.S. Government SearchIt’s been a very busy month for Google with all the new projects being released. It’s just amazing how many products are coming out and how many more are still waiting to be released.

So far we’ve seen Google’s Web-based Spreadsheet Application, Google Earth Release 4 and now Google U.S. Government Search.

Google today announced Google U.S. Government Search, a new search product that will make it easier to find U.S. government information and keep up to date on government news.

With Google U.S. Government Search, millions of U.S. government employees, various contractor organizations, as well as the general public can easily search across content on official federal, state and local government sites from a single search box. They can also keep current on government-related news with constantly updated content from government and commercial news sources, including the White House, Department of Defense, The Washington Post, and Google News.

There’s still 15 more days left in June, so I wonder what we’ll see next? Only time will tell and from the looks of things, we won’t be waiting very long for something new and exciting from Internet Giant Google.