Google to Launch Spreadsheets

Looks like Google is leaving no stone unturned to try and wrest every advantage it can from Microsoft. It is all set to launch a Web-based spreadsheet program that will allow people to view and simultaneously edit data while conducting a shared google chat. The launch of Google Spreadsheets puts it in direct competition with Microsoft, whose desktop-based Excel spreadsheet program is the defintive office spreadsheet package. Google, which acquired the Writely Web-based word processor recently, is unleashing Web-based services of office productivity programmes a la Microsoft Office. Microsoft is responding by revamping its business to focus on Web services under the Windows Live and Office Live monikers. Google Spreadsheets supports the import and export of documents in the .xls format used in Excel and the .csv (comma-separated values) format, said Jonathan Rochelle, product manager for Google Spreadsheet. The service provides automatic saving, so once a document is saved for the first time it is saved upon every change, as well as enables easy transfer of data from cell to cell, inserting and deleting of rows and columns and supports multiple sheets or tabs.