R.I.P. Google Docs

Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) will apparently see the first demo of the new Office Web software. Think Google Docs but with more functionality and better compatibility with MS Office. If it works out, then it will make all the people hyping Google and proclaiming “the death of Microsoft” look very foolish.

The Web punditocracy (TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb etc) have a tendency to get ahead of themselves and confuse potential with actual results. Sometimes they are so excited for a golden, beautiful future that they forget it is the future and has not yet (and may never) come to pass.

Google Apps, Zoho and so on did get some traction among very small businesses and cheapskates because they were free and adequate for a few small tasks. However, the Web punditocracy mistook this traction for a shift in the enterprise IT landscape, and lambasted Microsoft for being a slow, out-of-touch dinosaur.

But where were the revenues — and where were the real businesses dumping Office and Exchange for these new alternatives? The revenues were pitiful and the real businesses did not exist. Sure, a handful of large companies are piloting Google Apps and non-serious or very small companies are using it instead of hosted Exchange, but it is a drop in the ocean compared to Microsoft’s 90-something percent market share, and the only practical reason to do it is to dump MS Exchange, the ultra-expensive email server.

And now, just when Google is so pleased with itself about its ‘traction’ that it is mulling the idea of removing/hiding the free edition, Microsoft is spoiling the party with software that is also free – but better. The dirty secret is laid bare: Google Docs only had users because it was free – not because it was good. (Try switching from MS Office full time and doing any kind of serious task – Google Docs is abysmal.) It’s like a high school where Google was the only 16 year old with a car – a Kia – so everyone wanted to be his friend and hitch a ride. But now another child has come along with a car, and it’s a Porsche. Suddenly all the Kia owner’s ‘friends’ are nowhere to be found.