• Information Week, Wednesday, February 21, 2007 10:45 AM

Thanks in large part to upper-income individuals, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, the Web giant's online answer to Microsoft Office, has taken an early lead in the online productivity applications market. New data from Nielsen/NetRatings shows that Docs & Spreadsheets had 432,156 unique visitors in December, who spent an average of 14 minutes using the site. Google's program dominates the nascent field, which includes competitors like EditGrid, Zoho.com, Thinkfree.com and WriteBoard.

Why haven't you heard of them? While Google has taken the lead in yet another emerging Web field, Nielsen reveals that growth has been flat since October. Web users just aren't gravitating toward online productivity services, partly because Microsoft's Office still comes bundled with most PCs.

The collaborative nature of Google's service is interesting, but as yet, average users don't find it compelling enough. Still, the program's core demographics are attractive: 28% of users earn $100K or more, while 76% earn at least $50K.

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