One less reason to buy Office for the Mac: Google Spreadsheets

It's hard to build a web 2.0 wordprocessor. On the other hand, a web 2.0 spreadsheet seems far simpler. Now Google is launching one.

Now, not every lab product Google does is good. I still haven't found a use for Google Base, and I was very excited about that one. One problem they have is with privacy -- Google's default is to share, but that's not what I usually want with this stuff. I want ownership. Google's blog reader was bloody awful when I last looked. Their Calendar stuff seemed good, but the Gmail integration is dumb and I need to deal with PDA sync -- which they don't support.

On the other hand, look at the example they provide on their intro page -- a little league schedule. Exactly what I need to fuss with. More of a simple database than a spreadsheet really, but if they do iCal integration...

There's also the Mac implications. The biggest gap in the Mac world is the spreadsheet. FileMaker is a decent personal database (though one with an uncertain future!), and Nisus and Pages are tolerable writing solutions. AppleWorks, the only spreadsheet app, has been sunset. The main alternative to Office's spreadsheet, therefore, might be this one.

If it doesn't work with Safari, this might tip me to a Cocoa version of Firefox (Camino) as a test ... Google tends to support Safari last, if at all.