Google Spreadsheet and Browser Sync

So everyone’s busy talking about Google Spreadsheets all over the internet. I won’t repeat things here but I would like to point out some really fancy stuff I noticed:

• Not only can you share spreadsheets… you can literally chat in real time with the other person. Any changes made by the either person to the spreadsheet reflect immediately onto the other person’s screen. This is enabled by constant AJAX requests sent to Google servers as is shown in the screenshot below (see firebug in action). Some of the calls seem to be synchronous and timeout after sometime. Need to investigate more.
• Don’t think they currently offer this but the mass usage of this product will happen only with viral marketing. That can be enabled by letting users easily slap spreadsheet “widgets” on their blogs, websites etc. etc. Google already supports getting the HTML version of the spreadsheet…but I can imagine them giving out JS versions too which would be more AJAXy and have buttons to get XLS/CSV download options (as found in the current web interface).
• Overall a great product… not something I’m going to be using anytime soon though! Someone pointed me to a good one that already existed: ZohoSheet.

Now onto the not so talked about Google release for the day: Browser Sync. This might prove to be a BIG one in the future. With more and more people using firefox for their we browsing, where do they backup all their preferences, settings and bookmarks? GOOGLE! Thats a really smart move. Think about how much data Google is gathering about the users by offering this free service. Not only that, they are creating loyalty to firefox since the user can now get the exact “experience” anywhere in the world on any computer as long as it has Firefox and this plugin. I can imagine plugins getting synced too in the future…but that might have to wait. What stops Google from making this plugin installed by default in their Adsense referral firefox ads?

Much of this functionality can already be achieved using Bookmarks Synchronizer and SessionSaver. The former requires you to have a FTP server account which makes it pretty much exclusive to people who own server space. Google Broswer Sync even remembers tabs that you last opened on any firefox browser on any computer. This may or may not be a good thing, but whats annoying is that Google asks whether to “restore” tabs everytime I open firefox; unlike SessionSaver which just does it!

Overall an excellent plugin. Needs some more controls for the advanced user though (Google says they’re coming soon!).