Google may be planning to beef up its online spreadsheet offering by hiring the founders of iRows, a browser-based spreadsheet service. A posting to the iRows blog on Tuesday announced that Israeli service iRows will shut down on Dec. 31 and that the company’s founders will join Google. Google Screenshot Google confirmed that it has hired iRows founders Yoah Bar-David and Itai Raz and that they will work in Google’s Tel Aviv and Haifa research and development centers. In June, Google introduced Google Spreadsheets, a Web-based offering that lets users create and share spreadsheets and documents online, without using a software program like Microsoft’s Excel. The offering was developed based on Google’s acquisition of 2Web Technologies, a company that specialized in online information-sharing technology. At the time of the Google Spreadsheet service launch, there was some speculation that Google had bought iRows to create the offering. In an iRows blog posting, the founders wrote that the Google launch, though unrelated to iRows, drove more traffic to iRows than its servers could handle, presumably from people interested in other existing online spreadsheet offering. While iRows admitted that the Google offering has some more features than its own, iRows has some additional capabilities that Google doesn’t support.When iRows closes, all data from user spreadsheets will be deleted. IRows details how customers can transport their spreadsheets to Google Spreadsheets. Customers won’t be able to transfer charts, however, because they aren’t supported by Google Spreadsheets. Some iRows users complained in postings on the blog about having to sign up to a Google account in order to use Google Spreadsheets. Google’s spreadsheet offering also competes with AdventNet’s Zoho online spreadsheet and document offering and Team and Concepts’ EditGrid.-Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service (Dublin Bureau)Related Link: Google Writely, Spreadsheets Get Common PlatformCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content brandpost Sponsored by DataStax Ask yourself: How can genAI put your content to work? Generative AI applications can readily be built against the documents, emails, meeting transcripts, and other content that knowledge workers produce as a matter of course. By Bryan Kirschner Dec 04, 2023 5 mins Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence feature The CIO’s new role: Orchestrator-in-chief CIOs have unique insight into everything that happens in a company. Some are using that insight to take on a more strategic role. By Minda Zetlin Dec 04, 2023 12 mins CIO C-Suite Business IT Alignment opinion Fortifying the bridge between tech and business in the C-suite To be considered a tech-forward company today, there has to be a focus on tech fluency across the C-suite, which creates a unique opportunity for CIOs to uplevel their roles and expand their footprint across the enterprise. By Diana Bersohn and Rachel Barton Dec 04, 2023 7 mins CIO Business IT Alignment IT Strategy brandpost Sponsored by G42 Understanding the impact of AI on society, environment and economy By Jane Chan Dec 03, 2023 4 mins Artificial Intelligence Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe