Google Docs Spreadsheets Get Gadgets

Google has announced enhancements to its Google Docs Speadsheets online application that will enable users to embed purpose-specific “gadgets” in their document, as well as visualize data in new ways and send users email notifications when data changes. Google is borrowing some of the new ideas from iGoogle, and plans to eventually extend the functionality to other applications in the Google Docs suite.

Google views the new gadget capability and visualization API as a way for users and developers alike to leverage the power of spreadsheets, without having to rely on Google to develop exactly the tools and display capabilities they might want. “We’ve always wanted to give people more options to view and use their information in Google Docs,” wrote Jonathan Rochelle and Nir Bar-Lev in Google’s blog. “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.”

Google’s answer is to offer users and developers the tools to extend Spreadsheets in new ways that can be highly specific to their application—or maybe the Internet’s next big thing. Early examples include pivot tables, Gantt charts, and funnel charts, but developers can create their own gadgets to (say) plot data on a map or pull in information from other sources. That gadgets can also be displayed in other Web sites that support inline frames.

Google Docs Spreadsheets new notification feature extends Spreadsheet’s document collaboration feature by sending email notification to a document’s collaborators when data changes. The notices include information about who made the change, as well as what data was added or altered. Users can elect to be notified about every change, or receive a once-a-day summary of changes.