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Posted by Jonathan Rochelle & Nir
Bar-Lev, Product Managers

Whenever we're asked "how do people use Google
spreadsheets?", we always struggle with where to start.
It's not that we can't think of examples, it's just
that the examples are all so different, so unique. Sure, there are
definitely favorite themes — sports, finance and, yes, href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=psOu1MxOSLMOrN6GBsmAUGA"
id="ocpt" >knitting — but then the examples
become so particular to the people and groups who are using them:
The href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pD0NlEE-rv7zcUYxvGlpHOA"
id="b2tt" >beer taster's results.
The nursery school class schedule. The href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=poRB3Tn-uVkEIuh4pU-OpAg&gid=4"
id="d2b7" >biker's riding
log. The family reunion plan. The ski-trip sign-up form.
Endless examples, all of which, to spreadsheet junkies like us, are
interesting.

But while we've always wanted to give people more options to
view and use their information in Google Docs, we knew that trying
to build all of these one at a time would simply serve too few
people, given all the different ways people use and share
spreadsheets.

So today we're starting a new path to better enable developers
to customize and build on top of Google Docs with two new tools we
are releasing today: Gadgets-in-Docs and the href="http://code.google.com/apis/visualization" id="w:te"
>Visualization API.

Instead of delivering just one or two new types of reports, or a
new visual map mashup (can you ever get enough of those?), we
decided to deliver a platform on which anyone, not just Google,
could build the next best thing. We even invited a few developers
to try this with us, and they join us in this launch by featuring
just a few of their creations, like Panorama's pivot table, or
Viewpath's Gantt Chart, or InfoSoft's Funnel Charts — all
great tools for the student and enterprise user alike. We also
built a few early gadgets ourselves which you might find
useful.

onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"
href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_Ap14FtNN91w/R-EuT1hR4XI/AAAAAAAAA3s/dvIu-gDrqBQ/s1600-h/Gadgets_spreadsheets.gif" >
alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179471964771836274"
border="0" />

We borrowed the Gadgets-in-Docs concept from the iGoogle team, so
it's only fitting that you can also publish your spreadsheet
gadgets to iGoogle, where you can see your data-based-Gadget right
next to all that other stuff that's important to you (even if
it is just a picture of your dog).

To try it out, go into >Google Docs and open up a spreadsheet.
Click on the chart icon, and click 'Gadget…'. Pick your
gadget, customize it to fit your data, and then publish it out to
iGoogle or to any webpage.

If you're a developer and want to reach millions of people with
your latest creation, check out the href="http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/" >Google
Visualization API, courtesy of our visualization team
engineers. The Visualization API provides a platform that can be
used to create, share and reuse visualizations written by the
developer community. It provides a common way (an API) to access
structured data sources, the first being Google spreadsheets.

Tags: , Bar, Jonathan, Lev, Nir, Posted, product, Rochelle

Posted by Jonathan Rochelle, Product
Manager

Many of you must be wondering, “Whatever happened to 2Web
Technologies?" Um - no? Anybody? Well, if you're
wondering, we joined Google's New York City office last year to
come up with a solution to a problem we understood all too well:
how to quickly and easily share information in real time.
Spreadsheets were a clear target. They can have real power, but
there are equally real drawbacks to collaborating and sharing them.
This fact led our little team to explore making spreadsheet
software, and the spreadsheets themselves, available on the web.
And now, Google Spreadsheets is available as a limited test on href="http://labs.google.com" >Google Labs. Even when it was
only partly developed, we used Google Spreadsheets (alpha!) to
manage our task lists, our feature lists, our bandwidth estimates,
our storage estimates, even our complex team event voting ;). We
now know the true meaning of "share."

Now when I say “share,” I don’t mean “send group email,” and I
certainly don't mean "time-share". (That’s actually
the root of the problem we are trying to solve: multiple
out-of-sync versions that are email attachments.) I do mean “use and update the same
spreadsheet.” When I use Google Spreadsheets to organize events
with the other parents at my kids' school, we’ll be looking at
the same details at the same time. If I change the agenda of next
Friday’s teacher’s meeting, the other parents will see that change
immediately. When my brother-in-law’s bike club uses Google
Spreadsheets to track rides, they’ll be in sync — and if I change
the time of next week's ride, the other riders may actually
show up.

So don’t be surprised if you are soon invited by someone to share a
spreadsheet. (We're rolling this out as a href="http://www.google.com/googlespreadsheets/try_out.html" >limited
test.) Your kid's sports coach, your aunt in Omaha trying
to organize a major family reunion, your friend who promised to
compile a list of all your favorite hiking trails (and now wants
you to help), or your project team which now has a way to keep
tasks and status in one place for all to see.

Tags: , Jonathan, ManagerMany, Posted, product, Rochelle, Whatever, wondering