Google Inches Ever-Closer to a Usable Office Alternative

Agreed. They need to bolster Office Web Apps (i.e. allow people to view pages on docs whilst working on/editing). For now at least, Microsoft has a solid brand with Office, it needs to extend that brand to the very realm Google is beginning to dominate, i.e. cooperative work on the cheap.

Apple has offered there "Office Alternative" for years. It's not bad, but it's not office. Most serious users use Office even on Macs. Just using this as a comparison. Google Docs may work in a pinch but no one is going to use this exclusively for business. Still, it is worth watching.

Can you provide some specific examples of how "No one who has used both Microsoft Office/Office 365 and the Google Drive web apps (Docs, Sheets, and Slides) would ever try to claim that Google’s solutions are “superior”."?

I have used Google Apps, BPOS, Office 365, and the new Office Web Apps extensively. For some things I prefer the new (non-Office 365) Office Web Apps. IMO, the advantages of Office Web Apps are:

* Fancy graphics (e.g. neat moving selection in Excel)
* File fidelity with Microsoft formats (editing is held back for items which formatting would fail on which is not something Google can do as Google is not trying to sell a desktop version)
* Slightly better presentation software although Google is clearly giving them a run for their money on this.

Disadvantages:

* Excel Web App cannot yet create pivot tables.
* Word App does not autosave
* The apps cause browser crashes semi-frequently compared to Google Docs, likely due to the fancy graphics
* No graphics tool
* Lack of third-party integration with meaningful SaaS tools

Most everything else is comparable. The key thing I see in people who conclude that Office Web Apps are superior is the file fidelity with the desktop version of Office. To some people, that is the beginning and the end of what a Web-based office suite needs to do: play well with desktop MS Office. However, desktop functionality says nothing about the quality of the individual web apps. Most of the features touted by Microsoft are things that require desktop Office and are not really features of the web apps themselves.

Weighed by what can be accomplished through the web apps alone (without including desktop Office), Microsoft is playing catch up. Every time Google moves the bar up with features like offline presentations, Microsoft has to work that much harder to reach feature parity. I think Microsoft can and will catch up, but I also think that Microsoft will hold features back from web software for as long as they can still profitably sell equivalent desktop software. In some ways, I am rooting for Microsoft to make the move as I like a lot of their new software (InTune and Windows To Go, for instance), but part of me feels that the mantra to keep selling desktop software will sabotage cloud strategies.

I realize that most of the world is using desktop MS Office suite currently so integration with MS Office is a big plus. I also try to keep in mind that everyone used to use terminals, Wordstar, Lotus 1-2-3, and Wordperfect. Things change and appear to be changing very rapidly considering the expansion of Android, the decline of the desktop, and rise of specialized computing appliances.

Google Docs/Apps may not be "superior" but it's simple.

I recently went to "tech night" at my kid's high school. They have switched to using Gmail and Google Apps for their email and productivity apps. The thing that really surprised me, was that through all the tech demonstrations: how to look at the school calendar, email addresses, how kids submit their homework, how they make presentations, etc. the word "Microsoft" was never mentioned. Instead I heard about Prezi, Dropbox, Gmail, and other online cloud-based apps.

When the subject of what "computers" were used in the classroom, it was either tablets (mostly iPad) or Chromebooks. They especially like Chromebooks since in their environment they are always connected, require little administration, and with the switch to Google Apps they simply don't need PC's.

The iPad was the primary tablet, the reason being that in the classrooms where they were used, those classrooms each had an Apple TV connected to the projector. Hand out the iPads and when it is your turn show your presentation or homework you just connect your iPad to the Apple TV and it is displayed.

I am a huge fan of Excel, Nothing can replace it on desktop, nothing. However, when online, I prefer to use Google Spreadsheet instead of the web version of Excel because Google Spreadsheet has a few little but time saving features (i.e. select some cells and the sum is shown in the lower light corner, cells used in a formula are shown visually when editing the formula, it support comments within cells etc.). The desktop Excel has had these features for decades - Google copied them but MS failed to implement them in its own app. Funny!

This is MS's game to lose. Many people like me use MS Office on desktop and Google Docs online... As Google Docs gets better and better I guess more and more people will be able to live without MS Office. So it is must for MS to decisively beat Google Docs but it seems they do not see it that important.

This is quickly devolving into non-helpful territory.