Productivity Apps In The Cloud

Last week at the D conference, Walt Mossberg asked Bill Gates about Writely and Bill dismissed it with something along the lines of:

Our basic text editor has more functionality than Writely

It was as if Bill couldn't imagine why anyone in their right mind would want to use an editor as inferior in functionality as Writely.

Except all of Microsoft's editors, including the flagship editor Word, lack the simple functionality of being able to edit and save directly on the web.

And as I sit here dreaming about being able to use Google Spreadsheet, that is the one function I want.

I could care less about 10,000 fonts, tracking changes, macros, and all the other features and functions that Microsoft has piled into Word over the past 20 years.

I simply care about being able to write from wherever I am and make it available to whomever I want via the web. That is the single most important feature to me that trumps everything else.

And I can't figure out if Bill gets that and is just buying time until there are enough other people like me who value having my apps in the cloud or if he doesn't even see how incredibly important ubiquitous access of the app and the document is.

I think it's the former because I think Bill's a very smart guy, but he sure acted like its the latter in the interview with Mossberg last week.

Comments

[charlie crystle]

He's just defending his revenue stream, though poorly. Online text editors that save to the web aren't new, and I'm sure Microsoft has a few dozen waiting for attention. What they don't seem to get right, as you point out, is simplicity. Where are pivot tables--under "Data" or "Tools"? Microsoft organizes functionality in unpredictable ways, and you're right--why do we need to program Word? And if we don't need to, why should we be exposed to it, or have to install the footprint that accommodates it?

It should be obvious, simple, and it should just work, and in a lot of cases, it should just work on the web. That said, the power of desktop apps integrated with the web should not be ignored. Running apps through browsers is still slow and painful--like running a desktop app through a sock. A wool sock in some cases.

I'd like to see an editor that sits locally, runs locally, saves locally, and optionally (default) saves to the web as well. The only part of what you describe that needs to be web-based (and sock-imparied) is the save/replication. And for the solely web-based editors, I'd like to see AutoSave by default. I can't tell you how many times I've lost posts becauses of an innadvertent keboard slip that somehow refreshed the browser or went back. Many.

[Bjorn Ruwald]

He gets it, surely. But, Fred, I'm not sure Word lacks the capability of saving online. If you couple it with SharePoint you save directly to the web.

And--when will we hear more about your MacBook Pro experiences?

[Dave]

There are two issues I see with something like Google Spreadsheets:

(1) the documents are stored on Google's computer. Not good when one is dealing with confidential financial info.

(2) people who use spreadsheet generally use them for business, not leisure purposes. Who wants to see ads running on software used for business?

Unless Google can (1) guarantee the privacy of documents stored on its servers and (2) induce people to pay for an ad-free spreadsheet service, I don't see the appeal of their offering, at least for heavy users of Excel.

It seems it would be more effective to set up a file server and store your XLS documents there, if you needed to be able to access them via the web.

Again, this is not something that everyone would want to do, or could do, but, if the need is there, people will figure out how to do it or hire someone who can.

[Mark Evasn]

in organizing the recent mesh conference in toronto, we used writely extensively as a way to share our ideas and thinking. given that i just need a simple word processor, writely is just as good and useful a tool to me as word.

[vivek puri]

I think the best feature of all in writely is that multiple people can edit the same document simultaneously, which any of the other editors(web or desktop) have not been able to replicate. I think it's time microsoft starts looking somewhere else for making $$'s since google stuff is going to be free.

[Lee Semel]

I want to see online apps that I can
1) Easily share work with other people
2) Use a browser-based editor if I'm not in front of my own computer, but have the option for a fast, more feature-filled editor outside the browser
3) Have the option to store my private stuff on my own server, or use a public server like Google's. I don't want to store my private business information or sensitive emails on Google's server
4) Not have to install anything
5) Auto save, auto version
6) Have the option of PAYING for this service in order to use it securely for business

[rob]

I think that the place that things like this, the Writely and Google Spreadsheets of the world, can have a huge impact are in the efforts like Negroponte to give every child a laptop. I'm going to make one HUGE assumtion here - and that's the these kids in the developing world in some remote village in the backwaters of Brazil are going to have a network connection....but I don't really understand the purpose of his efforts if they don't! So, if you can post all those apps to a remote server then you can either a) make the laptop "skinnier" and less robust or you can b) use that capacity that was burned with running and storing apps locally to, for example, improve system performance or whatever else you want....

As far as a user in the developed world, well, I see these apps as being somewhat limited in scope and application for many of the reasons posted above. I spend more then enough time away from a solid broadband connection that

Just give me the option to save to the web as a URL or XML doc - which Word currently does - and that's that. I'd like to know how often people are REALLY collaboratively editing a doc in real time to understand how much that functionality is worth. Last time I did that I was in the same room and doing it on a projector. Heck, I can use a WebEx tool and do it as well. And why in the world is web based editing that important anyhow? I don't remember the last time I didn't have my laptop and needed to mod a document. I guess it could happen that I was on vacation, got a call and had to go to a web cafe to do that but again, the calculation that has to be made is what is the cost benefit analysis of having this functionality vs. the infamous application bloat that everyone chides MS for??

I think that the last post by Lee is a much closer to a description of something that MS could deploy simply by owning the office suite market already - hook that up with the new MS Live service and we're off and running.

r.

[Adam Elend]

Oh Bill most certainly gets it.

I had a long conversation with my cousin a few weeks ago, who works for Microsoft and spent many years working in Office, about this.

Her take is that they decided when Office 97 came out that they wanted to go all online based... not for productivity of their users, but for subscription fees.

Versions and upgrades are great, but subscription usage is the cash cow. And it would make a huge dent in their Office piracy issues around the world.

So there's no question they're moving that direction... just slowly. And that's nothing new for Microsoft.

[jc]

What is needed is an abstracted file system that has the capability to store your important, regularly used , and often edited stuff, that is replicated to the web, and easily sharable with others, and has aes encryption, and can do reflection of binary files to multiple points on the web to update lets say .png files, web graphics, html, or other files that you edit....You see, googol is building a skyscraper without plumbing, wiring, and the like. You need to start from the bottom up...I am not saying you need to build a bootable os in a web browser....Forget about office apps , and editing things online. If I edit it on machine x, then I want the binary file to update to server y and z, and by the way, I am sharing this information with many other users, lets say they need the update also, but as a revision...let ms do what it is good at, google should focus on "organizing" the worlds information...and where does the information mostly origniate...in a web browser? no , it originates on the desktop, well, first abstract how users are storing this information.. then use it to build out your googol global file system...

[Eric]

I am surprised no one has pointed you in this direction yet, but you will be happy to know about this:
http://www.marketing.fm/2006/05/18/blog-from-microsoft-word-2007/

Its a shameless plug for my own blog - but hey its great coverage:)

[Andrew]

I'm sure billg gets it, and I'm sure he's read this:
"disruptive technologies emerge: innovations that result in worse product performance, at least in the near-term... Products based on disruptive technologies are typically cheaper, simpler, smaller, and, frequently, more convienient to use."
Yes, that's Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma.

[Ash Maurya]

Rather than touting the 1000 features in the Office suite, Bill should instead be highlighting the privacy and security you get from keeping your sensitive data local.

Also, there is a common middle ground that carefully balances “ubiquity of data” with “privacy from locality” and that is the “Peer to Web” model: Keep the documents local, make it easy to share over the web with select people, encrypt eveything end-to-end.

[aishwaryaraipics]

http://www.aishwaryaraipics.org/