For managing various lists shared by a small group, it is very handy. Sort of QuickBase ultra-light.

Very handy for sharing simple spreadsheets. May never replace XL, but quite usefull. Can't wait for pivit tables and charts.

Really like how the sharing function prevents multiple versions of the same spreadsheet from floating around

if this wasn't google, we wouldn't be hearing any of these rationalizations. google spreadsheets, like all online spreadsheets, are a lame waste of time, no point even rehashing for the nth time all the points.

I've had a suprisingly (to me) superb experience with it. I'm leading an angel financing for a company. Like most angel rounds, we've got a bunch of people that we are talking to and moving through a process of "initial contact" through either rejection or commitment. Normally I'd do this in an Excel spreadsheet and email back and forth with the CEO / founder and/or anyone else on the founding team that was involved in the fundraising. In this case, I'm simply sharing a spreadsheet with the CEO. We are both updating it regularly. Trivial. Easy. On my toolbar in Firefox so I just click on it when I have something to add. It knows when we are both on line and tells us (so we can effectively IM back and forth.) It's really well done and effective for a simple task like this.

I use it routinely as a kind of personalized calculator for complex calculations that I want to keep handy. Specifically I keep a spreadsheet for calculating amortizations, npvs, etc. That way I can avoid reinventing the wheel when I don't have access to my desktop/laptop.

I often use onlie spredsheets to make a point on my blog, but Google is missing a key feauture there: charts. I end up using Zoho Sheet instead.

Yes, but it's not quite fair I suppose, coming from me.

I'm using it to track all sorts of projects where we have to keep track of many people's tasks (rows & columns) accross different verticals or deparments (worksheets).

Can't say we do much with numbers on it though!