Although Google Docs & Spreadsheets and Gmail (aka “Google Office”) might be suitable for some individuals and small businesses, it really doesn’t have all the options that Hosted Exchange, SharePoint and Office have.

For starters, who do can you call or email at Google for support when things go wrong or you need help? Do you really want ads inside all of your applications? Perhaps you have some documents or spreadsheets which are too confidential to share with Google, or that you want to keep entirely offline? And what about using your own corporate domain or corporate brand? I believe that these are just a few of the questions that set the two apart.

Not to say that Google doesn’t offer good free products, but there are some significant differences.

I’m familiar with docs.google.com but it’s mainly a lightweight spreadsheet application – a light, web-based version of Excel. Docs.google.com does have some collaboration features but I don’t see this competing with Sharepoint.

I saw someone in the market recently refer to Sharepoint as ‘Office Workspace’. I thought this wasn’t a bad description. Sharepoint is a secure place to store all office docs, has version control, notifies users when changes are made and can provide a range of permissions for each user. But it’s not trying to replace the individual applications of Office. The next version will provide new applications but nothing to replicate the functions of Office.

Moreover, it’s portable.

Personally If I had a spreadsheet of all employee salaries I would be comfortable putting in a Sharepoint site but I don’t think I’d copy & paste into the Google application. Sharepoint doesn’t index content:-)

What do you think of http://docs.google.com ?

If I am not mistaken, it does achieve the same things really and it’s free. It doesn’t have industrial strengh (or does it) in terms of flexibility and so on but I think it probably covers a lot of collaboration needs out there.

I couldn’t have said it better. I applaud your response to this knucklehead for knocking Microsoft. Some people fail to remember that Microsoft is the reason we even have the ability to communicate worldwide.

If we take time to and their check customer knowledge base, we can find the answer to ANY of our questions regarding ANY product or service they offer.

Side Note:
1. Their online training is second to none
2. Bugs/errors are corrected and reported by them as soon as possible.

Thanks again and keep up the good work,
Sylvia