Most knowledge workers can't even use Microsoft Office beyond the bare basics, let alone be expected to know online alternatives exist.

sumocat

My fiance and I have used Google Docs quite extensively to plan our wedding. It's really useful to have access to our guest list or vendor list and make updates from wherever we have internet access (and also great for just collaborating on a document). It's worked so well that we're now starting to use it for other documents--Christmas gift buying, books to read, etc.

neil

Don't know that I'd want to put anything personal or important in the hands of others online.

Capone

Thor222. I'm not surprised. I've been supporting computer networks for a long time, and IMO, the average PC user is totally clueless.

I've read that more than 90 percent of users think they have virus protection while less than 50% actually do. (Which explains why many the vast majority of all Windows computers connected to the Internet are invected with viruses and/or spyware.)

Many of them have no clue that anyone except Microsoft makes a word processor or spreadsheet program, so I'm not surprised they don't know about Google Docs, etc.

This time of year I get asked a lot of questions by people preparing to buy new computers. You should see the shock on their face when they realize that MS Office is going to cost as much as the "bargain" computer they are buying for their child.

And the relief when I hand them a disk containing OpenOffice.org, and AVG antivirus.

devnull

OpenOffice now has an online version, too.

TinkerX

Seriously, is anyone surprised?

thor222

The state of technology is amazing, but the number of people using it is depressing.

We need to get qualified, technical people teaching technology in schools. It drives me crazy that this isn't happening, when being competent with computers is such an important life skill these days.

There is so much potential for computers and the internet to change people's lives if they just knew how to use them...

Munkii

Google Docs has been out for, what, a little over one year and it's all ready time to pack it in because it hasn't taken over a market that's been dominated by Microsoft for over 15 years?

So Joe Wilcox is calling the whole online word processor, et al, movement dead. Didn't give it much time to catch on did you Wilcox?

Oh, and NPD asked 600 computer users. That's a pretty small sample. NPD said there are roughly 850 million PCs in the world and they asked 600 people. That's it.

There are also many variables that may keep people from finding the online alternatives. Maybe they only use a computer at work and are forced to use Word. Maybe they have no reason to use a word processor and just know of Word because of advertising/what their friends use.

In the end this article just seems to be a little ego stroke/corporate back scratching from eWeek to all those Microsoft ads all over the article's page.

But, Wilcox is right, since online office suites haven't caught on we should just call them dead and move on. Just like with every other technology that doesn't take off right away, just let it die and move on with what's all ready here.

tonystl

I'm with Capone...I evaluated the online suites and decided they weren't worth the risk exposure. Same reason I'm not using Wesabe. Also, I can more reliably control the migration paths of my data on my own equipment and software. I have Word and Excel files originally created with the first issue of these programs, and some of the Word files were first created in a WordStar knockoff DOS program back in the early '80s, some data files that were once in QuattroPro and 1-2-3, and a ton of graphics created in long-dead or obsolete programs, like Micrografx Picture Publisher. (Why is it that Adobe buys up and kills every graphics package I like...and replaces it with something that sucks?)

I just roll new versions of my files every time I buy an upgrade or replacement program, and I've lost very little as a result. I don't know that I could do that with online versions.

Plus, all of my files and programs are in multiple locations, so if one is down or inaccessible, I still have at least one other system that will be working. (My whole system is set up redundantly -- for example, I have dial-up Internet access, cable modem, and cellular broadband...all on different carriers. The odds against ever being "down" completely are almost nil...and yes, I have used them all in failover situations.) Online systems are brittle in that they are vulnerable to multiple points of failure, almost all of which are outside of the user's control.

Keter

Frankly, I am not amazed at all. Most people do not experience any need for online apps, so do not search for them and do not know about them.
Many people who do know about online apps, like me, are not using them over privacy and confidentiality concerns.

Sorry, uploading confident business documents to an online third party does NOT sound like a good idea to me. And regardless what I think, it is simply completely forbidden under corporate information security risk policies.
As for personal documents, still does not sound like a good idea for anything else than completely harmless documents.

Same with sites like Wesabe: uploading all my bank transaction details to a third party? They may say it is safe, but not uploading in my opinion is way safer.

Identity thievery is getting so much easier if potential identity thiefs can hack sites like Wesabe and have all kind of nice details to go. And no site is unhackable, even the Pentagon was hacked. OK, my own PC is probably more hackable, but the Wesabe site is so much more an attractive goal for identity thiefs than my PC.

On top of that: all these sites are US companies. Do not get me wrong, I have nothing against US companies, but privacy laws in the US are at a very low baseline compared to the European Union data protection and privacy directives.

So for me online apps are a no go.

The tech as such will have a future, but for large scale implementation for businesses it will be on the internal secured intranet of companies, not the public internet.

xahmol