Google Docs a Failure, Says Forrester Analyst
Google Docs a Failure, Says Forrester Analyst
Posted 06/14/2010 at 6:11pm
| by Pulkit Chandna
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Forrester analyst JP Gownder was all praise for Microsoft Office 2010 in a recent blog post. He believes that the productivity suite has the unenviable task of providing ballast to the fast drowning packaged software industry. But he is confident that it will not disappoint.
Gownder rubbished the idea of Google Docs being a worthy Office rival, even calling it a failure “ in terms of usage and penetration.” According to Forrester’s Consumer Technographics PC and Gaming survey, only 4 percent of respondents admitted to using Google Docs regularly.
“Let’s think about that for a second: We’re talking about a free software-as-a-service offering from one of the top brand names in technology, Gownder wrote. “The offering has been available for over three years from Google (and two more years if you count Writely before Google purchased Upstartle). And yet only 4% of consumers are onboard.”
On the other hand, he has high hopes of Office 2010 becoming a “success in the consumer market” just like previous versions. He imputes its impending success to a combination of factors: valuable consumer input that has gone into developing it; its popularity among enterprises; and the introduction of Office Web.
Image Credit: Microsoft Office 2010
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Mr_Histamine
June 15, 2010 at 4:00pm
While Google Docs is good for the simple stuff, and collaborating on a document over the internet - it still lacks the ability to do any serious work. I thought I could do without Office...but after a couple of years of using Google Docs, I find myself missing what I originally thought was unecessary fluff (especially for spreadsheets).
In truth, if you want a free and useful alternative to Office, OpenOffice.org is your best option. Although its not as tight as Office, it offers miles better functionality than Google Docs.
________________________________________________________________________________
Please deposit your pride, life, and other garbage in the receptacles at the back of the theater before you leave. Thanks!
stige
June 15, 2010 at 1:34pm
like most things in life, this is pretty subjective. it will be what you want it to be.
i work at a very large company (10k+ employees) and we switched to gCal, gMail and gDocs starting last year.
i love it and don't ever want to go back. for me all the "features" i'm "missing" by using gDocs is just fluff that i am actually really happy to be rid of. in stead of using all these formatting tools just because they're there and i fell like i should use them i just whip something out (no, not that, you pervs) and throw it out there for everyone to work on / with.
there are some significant +'s and -'s to both MSO 2010 and gDocs but in my opinion they're different tools for different people even though they are ostensibly 'competitors'. figure out what you need and pick the one that's right for you.
of the trifecta of business solutions gCal is E1eventy!!!oneone!1! million, billion times better than the PoS Oracle Calander we used to use. gMail is about 10x better than Outlook and gDocs a cool 1 million times better than than Office... for my needs.
Categorically saying one sucks and then other rules is just silly.
michaelh
June 15, 2010 at 11:10am
Overall, I prefer the OpenOffice suite. I find it more intuitive and less invasive as far as installation and bloatware goes. Unfortunately, to keep up with work software and ensure compatibility I stick with MSOffice for work-related endeavors.
I love GoogleDocs, though. It's very underpowered and a bit obtuse at times, but it's perfect for my friends and family doc sharing / editing needs.
The analyst seems to have missed the point. I was never under the impression that Gdocs were supposed to be a replacement or even supplement for business needs - more a convenient tool for basic tasks & sharing. Its existence alone proves that it's not a failure, it's just not going to compete anytime soon.
cepheus42
June 15, 2010 at 6:48am
I tried google docs for a while, but found it simply too cludgy for my personal preferences. Since I hated the idea of going back to Microsoft, I went with OpenOffice, and have been completely satisfied with the choice. It does what I need it to do, and since I'm not really collaborating with anyone there's no need to have that sort of setup available (but if I do, I'll use something like Dropbox to share files instead).
Fefe
June 15, 2010 at 12:02am
Google Docs is awesome, it's not rubbish as he puts it. I think it's very useful when sharing the same doc with multiple people, and being able to edit it at the same time. I use it for group projects, and for work. Anyway, I like ,and use, both Microsoft and Google Docs for different purposes.
Mighty BOB!
June 14, 2010 at 8:48pm
I use OpenOffice for almost everything except my resume, which opens differently in Word and OpenOffice. There's something slightly different about the way OpenOffice handles formatting or line spacing (and bullets) that pushes an entire paragraph onto a second page. For that document I have an older version (2003) of Word installed in XP Mode.
(lol, no, I'm not installing Word in Win7. Actually now that I think about it, I don't even have OpenOffice installed in Win7. It's on a separate hard drive that still has XP installed and it actually works just fine by running it from the other drive. I'm rambling now.)
I've only used Google Docs for a few collaborative documents (ones where print formatting wasn'tall that important). Although it would guarantee access from any net-connected machine, I still don't use it for anything else.
Tekzel
June 15, 2010 at 11:31am
Is there any particular reason you don't just do your resume in OpenOffice and then save a copy as a PDF (using the built in PDF export, of course) for sending out? It seems to me that PDF would be a better format for sending anyway, given the different versions of Word out in the wild. Everywhere I have submitted my resume have accepted PDF with no problems.
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You know users... Buncha bitchy little girls.
Arrowdodger
June 15, 2010 at 12:31am
Have you checked the defaults? Sounds like line spacing, margins, and space widths aren't set the same.
sanravel
June 14, 2010 at 8:16pm
My company switched all 15,000 of us to Google Docs 4th quarter last year. We are all back on MS Office. To many incompatiblities with our customers documents, spreadsheets, etc. Google Docs is great during a conference call since any user can change the documents live, but other than that it has been a bust for us.
We are however, using Gmail company wide and other than having to be connected to use it, it beats the h*ll out of our previous email program.
Maybe Google should work on a CRM program that works. We have been through 3 in the last 10 years and they are all failures.
Neufeldt2002
June 14, 2010 at 7:30pm
I haven't used MS Office, since 2000 and my training for MCSE. I cannot justify the price point, I guess if you need an office suit that is locked in, and the accounting dept has money to burn MS is the way to go, but I find OO.org just fine. Although, the recent purchase from Oracle is raising concern.
Wareagle
June 14, 2010 at 7:09pm
I use both. They have their uses. Features and guaranteed privacy are obvious benefits with MS Office. Collaberation and accessibility from any workstation are benefits of Google Docs.
sanravel
June 14, 2010 at 8:22pm
Most commenters sound like fanboys, pro or con, unless they cite real world experiences in their posts.
Mosher
June 14, 2010 at 9:13pm
I use both constantly. Since trying out Office 2010, I worry for Docs, but they definitely have their place. Google's argument, that you can save money by sticking to Office 2007, and using Docs for your cloud needs, does have merit. I used Office 2010's cloud system and was impressed, but when I tried the cloud client, the actual editing experience was not better than Docs, (Office 2010 gives you only certain editing options online), though I didn't test them against each other feature for feature, I think they offer similar packages.
What I wonder is what chrome os will bring to the table. as it matures and gains market share, they will have (the motivation) to fill the word processing needs of their users. and let me remind you that the whole OS will be cloud based, which may give them an advantage over Microsoft which has to develop its software both in the local client version and the cloud client version, while Google only needs to develop its cloud version, which is compatible with chrome OS and non-chrome OS users.
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