Only in the online app world would people notice a change as slight as a right-click context menu. Keen users have pointed out that in the latest version bump of Google Spreadsheets, you’re finally able to do all the right-clicking you want, without having your pesky browser menu get in the way. This definitely doesn’t make Spreadsheets a killer app, but it is successful in taking a baby step towards bridging the gap between the online app world, and the desktop app world.

Another small improvement is an interface allowing for easier tweaking of borders, just like in Excel.

The real question is, where is Google going with all this? Are they planning on bringing a whole suite of office tools to loosen Microsoft’s grip on the industry? I would imagine, for now, that Google Spreadsheets would only appeal to non-power users (much like Gliffy).

I would love to hear about what people are doing right now with Google Spreadsheets. Are you using it as you would Excel? Or are you using it to simply jot down simple temporary notes? Do you ever use the collaborative features?

There’s already a multitude of reviews, both good and bad, about Google Spreadsheets (Techcrunch, rev2.org, Solution Watch). And, there’s even a screencast at sitening for those of you not lucky enough to get in on an invitation.

Instead of doing an extensive review, which many of the other bloggers have already done, I’ll just give some of the highlights and first impressions.

Pros

• Fast and instant access anywhere (what we’ve come to expect from Google)
• Ability to share and chat on the spreadsheet with other users
• Excel users will be very comfortable with the interface (maybe, even a little too comfortable)
• Nice file exporting and saving features

Cons

• No search, as Techcrunch pointed out (although, we wouldn’t be banging on this issue if it were another company, like Microsoft)
• No advanced features like graphs, which may be a deal killer for a lot of people
• Lack of right click context menus, which is a difficult problem to deal with in a web application

In the end, the question is, will people actually use it? Or will it go the way of many of Google’s other applications, which seem to be merely experimental. There are other spreadsheet apps that are more feature complete than Google’s, including Numbler and NumSum.

The advantage that Google Spreadsheets has is the potential integration with other Google services, like Gmail, Writely, or whatever other web app it decides to deploy next (online Visio and Project anyone?) The collaboration aspect to Spreadsheets is quite clean, and if they could emphasize and extend the ease of sharing across apps and with many people, it could be very useful.

Again, before any company would jump to using this app, there’s still the privacy and security aspect. Would you be comfortable holding all your important (and potentially classified) spreadsheets on Google’s servers? I think the answer for most companies is a very simple “no.”