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The Biz of Coding

The Writely acquisition — Google Office V/s MS Office?

by Ujwal Tickoo on March 16th, 2006

Google’s recent acquisition of the company behind Writely (Upstartle) fueled the Google V/s Microsoft office-war speculation. Is Google interested in taking up Microsoft in its Office line of business? I am unsure.

Om Malik has created a great comparison chart of free Google products that might compete with some not-free(?) Microsoft Office components. I am summarizing his table here:

Google Mail V/s Outlook

Google Writely V/s Word

Google ? V/s Excel

Google Base V/s Access

Google ? V/s PowerPoint

I have several reasons to be very circumspect in buying the Google Office V/s Microsoft Office line here. I think Google has some other plans. Here are the reasons…

1) Competitive History on Office Suites: Corel has almost killed itself trying to take on Microsoft Office. Sun tried with the StarOffice and did not really make a major dent in Microsoft’s Office base. Why would it be easy for Google?

post 1 of 4, to continue…

Tags: ,

POSTED IN: Google, MS Office, Microsoft, Office Productivity Software, Office Suite, Writely

7 opinions for The Writely acquisition — Google Office V/s MS Office?

  • TheBizofCoding
    Mar 18, 2006 at 9:18 am

    This post continues from my March 16th post on the possibility of Google Office trying to compete with MS Office. I write this post with deep satisfaction and big smile. Eric Schmidt validated part of my strategic insight! An articl…

  • Razib
    Mar 20, 2006 at 2:18 am

    I beg to differ with you about Corel and Sun and Google. Google is entering in this market with Writely at a time, when more and more people are spending more time in Internet and Google has already got a strong base of users through Gmail, Orkut and now Google Video and not to mention the popular Google search and Blogger.

  • TheBizofCoding
    Mar 20, 2006 at 4:27 am

    In my previous two posts I stated two reasons why Google would not go after Microsoft’s Office business (1) Competitive history (2) Core Business Strengths. A third reason is Product Strategy. Let me delve into deeper analysis: 1) Competitiv…

  • TheBizofCoding
    Mar 20, 2006 at 5:09 am

    This post continues from my Previous 3 Posts about the Writely acquisition. Competitive Posturing is the overlooked reason why Google has gathered a set of applications that are similar to those in Microsoft Office. Google will need to respond str…

  • ujwal
    Mar 20, 2006 at 5:31 am

    Razib,
    I would encourage you to read through all my 4 serial posts on the Writely acquisition. The next 3 posts provide a deeper explanation of why I believe Google is not eyeing the MS Office Business.
    Infact as I have mentioned in a later post Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, has himself stated that Writely acquisition (as of now) is more about Google getting “a good, web-based rich text editor.”
    Same thing regarding Corel and Sun. Even though both Corel’s and Sun’s (http://www.openoffice.org/product/reviews.html) Office Suites have won outstanding reviews — they have not yet seriously dented Microsoft Office’s market share (unlike Linux where MS considers it a credible, serious threat to Windows).
    Finally, users of Gmail, Blogger and maybe Orkut could be the immediate beneficiaries of Writely’s capabilities — until Google really ramps up its features.
    After reading through all my 4 serial posts on the Writely acquisition, please do let me know your views. Look forward…:)

  • Himanshu
    Aug 22, 2006 at 4:03 pm

    u r inf. is good. But i want to know more abt google v/s microsoft exactly from where they start

  • ujwal tickoo
    Aug 22, 2006 at 11:49 pm

    Himanshu,
    1) I believe that Microsoft is keen to have an online/advertisement based business model which has made big successes out of Google and Yahoo!
    2) Microsoft also believes that the Online model of Search and Applications like Mail, Word Processors, Multimedia interaction –could disrupt its own hold on users via Windows and Windows based Applications.
    If users start using web applications from Yahoo! (e.g Y! Mail) and Google (GMail) and start keeping more of their data with Yahoo! and Google then Windows would first become a software that merely helps users start their PCs. After that users forget about Windows (and MSFT) and go directly to Yahoo! and Google for getting their work done.
    Long term this is the threat the Microsoft perceives.
    Does this help answer your question? If not please clarify the extra info you would want and I will try to reply to your query.
    Best…

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