(2007-04-13) Jones Excel Platform

Phil Jones think Microsoft should turn MsExcel into Social Software, because it's already such an open Platform. But Excel is wonderful. It's the universal, "Swiss Army" desktop solution with dozens of little functional "blades". Want a "to-do" list? Excel. Want a status report? Excel? Want to do some calculations? Excel... And what sucks most about Excel? The fact that people are always mailing spreadsheets around to each other and they have trouble keeping a single, up-to-date copy between them. What they need is Excel socialized. And where's socialized Excel? Caught up in turf-wars and lost behind a bunch of vague, confusing products like "SharePoint" and technologies like ExcelServices... 99% of the world's "semi-structured" data is not in MicroFormat-s but in tables in spreadsheets.

Mary Jo Foley doesn't see ExcelServices competing with GoogleApps. Microsoft doesn't want to give its blessing or backing to a completely Web-based office suite. Microsoft execs want "software plus a service" - not "software as a service" (SaaS) to win.