Google is offering an online spreadsheet service, under a limited offer starting today (7 June). Analysts said the system could push the firm further into traditional Microsoft territory.

On Tuesday, Google asked internet users to register the interest in the service, and today it sent invitations linking to its sign-up page. IT Week secured an account and found the service to be very useable, similar in form and function to Microsoft’s Excel, but with additional features such as the ability to share and collaboratively edit documents. Google’s spreadsheet compliments this with a chat function, which opens in a separate window.

Spreadsheets created online can be saved onto the user’s computer in either an Excel document or Comma Separated Value (CSV) format. This also works the other way, so documents created in other applications can be uploaded to Google’s web-based system.