Google spreadsheets in trouble - and Java DB can help

As I suspect many of you have noticed, Google has announced an online spreadsheet. And as you also may have noticed, the response hasn't been all positive. See here. And here. And here. There's a theme here: nice idea, but why would my spreadsheet data to Google? They can give all the promises of privacy they want, the trust factor just isn't there. There is also the complaint that it is limited in features, but that's solvable over time. The security/privacy concern – that won't go away, and is an issue for a number of web app wannabes.

I think this is a perfect example of why you need offline storage for Web 2.0 applications. If you were to take the the Google Spreadsheet and enable offline storage, you've removed a major barrier to entry. You get the convenience and power of web applications, without having to put your data on the web. All your spreadsheet data stays safely on your machine, under your control.

This solution would of course use Java DB :). Seriously, Java DB is portable (you can use the same standard JDBC API across XP, Solaris, Linux, even PDAs and phones supporting CDC), it's secure, it maps very well to spreadsheet data, it is transactional and has automatic crash recovery. It also comes with a strong community and solid support when you need it. I suppose you could write it using your own storage APIs, but why would you want to?

Hey, Google, come talk to us, I think we can help you out! :)