One of Gmail's handiest features has long been its ability to open a large variety of attachments with its "View as HTML" option. Now Google has taken it one logical step futher with an "Open in Google Spreadsheets" option when you receive an Excel file as an attachment. I checked it out and found it to be pretty convenient. While Gmail's HTML view is occasionally lacking, Google Spreadsheets is somewhat more faithful to the original, though charts are still lost in the process. Though like Google Blogoscoped's Philipp Lenssen I'm wary of lock-in, this is the sort of integration "Google Office" needs to compete against other desktop and web-based offerings.

Every time Google launches (or buys) a cool new product, I'm a little nervous that that's the last thing we'll hear about it., i.e. Google will just leave it to gather dust. That was definitely my fear after the launch of Google Spreadsheets, but I'm happy to report that those fear appear to be unfounded. ZDNet blogger Garett Rogers is reporting that Google has rolled out a new version of Spreadsheets. The change in version numbers is almost so small as to be imperceptible (1.1.4b to 1.1.4d), and this is by no means a large update, but some nice new features have been added. Most useful, perhaps, is the addition of right-click context menus for faster access to cell and row functions. Also new is improved cell formatting, including borders and the ability to copy and paste formatting only. Like I said, nothing huge, but these features will definitely be welcomed by anyone who uses Google Spreadsheets.

[Via Digg]

Back in March Google turned some heads with its purchase of Writely, a collaborative web-based word processor. Yesterday it made waves again with Google Spreadsheets, a web-based app whose purpose isn't necessary to explain. Google Spreadsheets is no Excel-killer by any means, but from the ten minutes or so of poking around I've done, it seems a lot nicer than any of its web-based competition like ajaxXLS, Numbler, iRows, or WikiCalc. Like those others, it's naturally full to the brim with Ajax, but I think what sticks out most is how responsive it is and how easy it is to use coming from years of being trained by Excel. There is a bit of JavaScript lag, but not enough to bug me, and the most common Excel keyboard shortcuts are all present. It of course has the requisite import and export features for both .XLS and .CSV files, plus a nice Export HTML function, and you can invite people via e-mail to view or edit your spreadsheets. Google Spreadsheets will have little draw for people who just use Excel to keep track of, say, personal expenses, but if you need easy web-based collaboration in a tidy package and can forego some-well, almost all--of Excel's more advanced features, Google Spreadsheets is worth checking out.

It's been noted many places that Google now has almost an entire Office-alike (sans PowerPoint) in its collection: Gmail/Google Calendar vs. Outlook, Writely vs. Word, Google Spreadsheets vs. Excel, Google Base vs. Access. What they have is a long way from being an Office-killer--in fact, it seems more like a hodge-podge of unconnected tools rather than a suite, and I think integrating these disparate tools is high on Google's to-do list. Whether they're really looking to usurp Microsoft's Office throne is still pretty unknowable in my opinion, but I do hope they're going somewhere with all of this.