mobilised - Google The Latest In Growing Spreadsheet List

Google The Latest In Growing Spreadsheet List

Written by Adam Gosling

Friday, 09 June 2006

Google may have all the branding, but when it comes to online applications the search giant isn't the only one in the game. There's a growing list of online spreadsheeting websites that let you calculate, graph, share and even republish your spreadsheets on your website.

In addition to the growing list of online spreadsheet websites offering free Beta services, there's also a long list of word processing sites that offer similar online applications for free.

Some have bugs, crash occasionally and may not be a substitute for a hard drive loaded applications like Microsoft Office of OpenOffice, but the signs are positive that these software-as-a-service sites will play a serious role in application delivery for mobile workers and collaborative projects, as well as for home users that don't need all the bells and whistles of a traditional application.

The applications on most of these websites do not qualify as Open Source, but they usually offer free access accounts and usually commit to always providing an entry-level service.

Here's a quick run down (in no particular order) of some of the free online office productivity applications Mobilised has identified.

Zoho Sheet
This web based alternative to traditional spreadsheet applications, like MS Excel or Openoffice Calc, providing basic spreadsheet functionalities coupled with web based features like sharing, tagging, publishing and more...

NumSum
A place to do simple, sharable web spreadsheets online. The company plans to release a paid for version in the future, but commits to always providing basic spreadsheeting for free.

iRows
This spreadsheeting site aLLOWS you to edit, compute, chart, sort, incorporate dynamic web data and even publish the sheets dynamicalls on a web page.

WikiCalc
WikiCalc is a web authoring tool for pages that include data that is more than just unformatted prose. It combines some of the ease of authoring and multi-person editing of a wiki with the familiar visual formatting and data organizing metaphor of a spreadsheet. It can be easily set up to publish to basic web server space accessed by FTP and there is no need to set up server-side programs like CGI. It can, though, run on a server and be used with nothing more than a browser on the client.

eyeOS
eyeOS is a web based office desktop system that you can access from anywhere, or download your own copy and install on a server. With eyeOS you can access your data and your applications anywhere, anytime. eyeOS is Open Source software. You can set up a free account and use the eyeOS servers or, if you prefer you can download a copy of the software here and install it on your own server. The desktop system starts off with a virtual word processor, calendar, file manager, messenger, browser and other applications, but the community contributes other applications, games and all sorts of stuff. Visit the eyeOS Application Database to get an idea of what's available.

gOffice
You can access a create simple documents by inputing HTML and then outputting PDF.

ThinkFree
ThinkFree Online says it was the first Internet-based office productivity suite to blend the best of the Internet's collaboration features with Microsoft Office suite compatibility. Novice users and IT enthusiasts alike will find the three applications -ThinkFree Write for word processing, ThinkFree Calc for spreadsheet management and ThinkFree Show for creating presentations-intuitive to learn and use. You also get a full GB of storage thrown in with your account.

ZohoWriter
You can upload your Micorsoft Office or OpenOffice.org documents to this and even create and save templates to use later.

Writeboard
This site allows you to creat collaborative documents or simply use it for your own purposes. The key feature of this application is that it saves past versions, so if somebody makes a change that you don't like, you can revert it back to an earlier version. You can even compare tow different versions to see what was changed.

Writely
Unfortunately you can't sign up to the Writely service. It got so popular, it was bought by Google!

iNetWord
iNetWord is a browser-based, WYSIWYG HTML editor. The current offering is a free, hosted, demonstration Web page and text editing system. It enables you to fully evaluate iNetWord for use on your Web hosting or groupware collaboration site. The solution is better used with Internet Explorer as some feautres do not work under Firefox.

EditGrid
This collaborative spreadsheeting site feautres an engine that suports over 500 functions and comprehensive import/export facilities.

Dabble DB
Dabble DB only offers a one month free trial, but the innovative mix of spreadsheeting and database functionality is worth a look.

Or how about Thumbstacksritely
An alternative to PowerPoint that lets you create and shre presentations on the Web.
Finally at AjaxLaunch you can access wordprocessing, spreadsheeting, graphics and even video editing applications on the web! This project is backed by Michael Robertson of Linspire fame. The company, Ajax13, is even working on a special Linspire distribution that is Ajax aware.

If you know of other online applications please contact the Mobilised Editor using the Contact Us email service, we are trying to put together a list of Windows Open Source and Web-based application services.