Results

Imagine my surprise to be welcomed to work first thing Monday morning by an email subject line reading, “OK…you are now leaving your comfort zone.” My boss had the great idea of testing and reviewing Google’s stripped-down answer to Microsoft Office, and I was the chosen candidate for this assignment. His email went on to say, “By the way, I am not going to train you either. You need to figure this out on your own.” Wonderful, I thought, rolling my eyes. Me, the only non-techie in our office, nominated as the sacrificial lamb.

Seriously, though, I am an ideal candidate for this kind of experiment. I know how to navigate the web decently, I’m comfortable with MS Office, etc., but I’m far from ingenious when it comes to learning new applications. If I could gracefully make the switch to Google Apps, then our growing company would potentially follow suit. I obediently logged on and begun my explorations.

Google Apps is a series of programs which mimic Office Suite, including email, calendaring, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and messaging. Initially conceived in 2005, Apps matured in early 2007 with a Premier Edition marketed to small businesses that added more features and functionality. The whole package is priced reasonably at $50 per user per year, much less than your typical costs for licensing Office. Standard and Education editions of Apps are offered free of charge.

Though I experienced the initial bumps that are expected when learning new software (where on earth is the spell check function?), I’ve become acculturated quickly. I’ve been using Google Docs for all of my blog compositions for a little over a week, and I love that I can have my boss review and make changes without creating different drafts. I find it easier to use the formatting and stylistic options without searching through obscurely-named drop-down menus, though Docs is considerably (and purposefully) less sophisticated than Word. My biggest pet peeves so far are the lack of a thesaurus and the limited number of special symbols (looking up Unicodes is no fun). I suspect, however, that functionality will increase as more and more businesses begin using Docs as a replacement for Word.

One of the biggest shortcomings of Apps is the fact that it is entirely web-based. Your work is archived online much like your email, and you can only access it if you’re connected to the internet. This is especially problematic when traveling, and Google is rumored to be working on a “work offline” open source option similar to that which is already in place for Reader. This would allow users to access their archives on long airplane flights, for example.

Apps has a long way to go before it gives Microsoft a serious run for its money, but I’m of the opinion that its a viable alternative for low-needs users like myself. It perfectly reflects Google’s grassroots culture aimed at changing our expectations of internet technology. After all, most of us have been using Office Suite for so long that anything different seems foreign and unintuitive. Objectively, MS Office is only usable because its so familiar, not because it truly utilizes the principles of user-centered design. With a little elbow grease, Google could make switching to a new business software package easier and more economical than sticking with the old guard.

Stay tuned for more of my adventures with Google Apps.

Friday, October 19th, 2007 Both comments and pings are currently closed.

By Haley January Eckels