I have people ask me all the time. Is Microsoft Office worth it? Short Answer is yes. You can really do alot with it, but the in-depth stuff probably requires training. Then people ask, Google has docs and spreadsheets for free, is it better than office? Short Answer, yes and no. It's awesome because it's free, provides probably the most used features, and is available online so you can access your docs and spreadsheets from any internet connection.
Is it better than MS Office though? No.
It simply is free alternative to the more powerful and robust MS Office. Your imagination is pretty much the limit in the things you can do w/ Office. In fact, if you have Office, you can use Google docs and spreadsheets as your online repository. The downside is that if you use those advanced features, they may not translate very well. (I'd say 90% of people don't use those features)
In my opinion, Google is simply trying to fill in the gap for personal and small business users who don't want to spend alot on a functional spreadsheet application and something better than the standard wordpad/notepad. So if you have Office, why not utilize the strengths of both?
