I've been playing with Google's new online spreadsheets -- and they are cool.

I didn't expect them to have the full capabilities of Excel, so the fact that many functions are not there didn't surprise me. I was surprised, though, by the speed. And the designers made some intriguing enhancements over what we already use. For instance, when you make one column wider, the product automatically widens other columns for consistency. Nice touch.

If you've never used a spreadsheet before, you'll find the current Google interface crisp and clean. (Sounds like a toothpaste commercial, doesn't it?) You don't have to buy an expensive office package, and you can share your spreadsheets with your friends -- even if they live half-way across the world.

There were a few touches, though, that may be as detrimental as they are helpful. That's because the designers took great care to add the touches that make their product just a tiny bit better -- as contradictory as that might seem at first.

Just one of many examples: When you want to add the numbers in a column, you can highlight the cells with your mouse, then click sum to get the answer -- just as you would in Excel. With Google spreadsheets, it puts the sum in the next cell after your highlighted cells. In Excel, if you highlight an extra blank cell at the bottom of those you're adding, it will put the sum there. Better? Maybe. Different? Definitely. That's the problem. When using Google Spreadsheets, it's easy to forget it's different.

Slightly better is not really better. It's confusing. We have all sorts of examples around us.

Your video tape recorder

Your cell phone

Your voice mail on your cell phone

Your telephone

Your TV

Your TV remote control.

Why do remote controls need to be so complicated? Because designers try to outdo one another, instead of sticking to a standard. They program buttons to do the same thing differently, give them different names, and lay them out in different places on the face of the device.

Similarly, VHS video tape recorders and camcorders are among the most difficult devices in the world to use: When you learn how to use one, it doesn't necessarily mean you know how to use another.

Even the telephone! Remember how simple they were? When touch-tone first hit the scene, there were 12 buttons and a switch hook. They were always in the same place, always the same size, and always did the same thing. Now, you need to read the manual, program the phone, and remember which phone you're using whenever you want to make a call.

Against this backdrop, the computer -- whether you're talking Windows or Mac -- is among the simplest of all devices. But not when software designers deviate. A small deviation is worse than a large one, even if it seems to make things better.

You wonder why Microsoft has a monopoly with Windows and a near-monopoly with Office? Because it has done a good job of keeping things consistent. When you want to find a version number, you always click on the [Help] menu; then [About ]. When you want to save something, it's always under the [File] menu. Other successful companies have piggy-backed on the standards to make things easier for the users.

Apple's interface and Microsoft's interface might seem similar at first, but they're a world apart, which is why users in both camps so fiercely defend their favorite.

The Google spreadsheet is in the same world as its predecessors -- just a slightly better neighborhood.