Could JotSpot tackle Excel?

Ever need to crunch some numbers with someone who isn't right there with you?  Of course.  It happens all the time.  Now, zapping an Excel sheet back and forth isn't the most efficient thing in the world.  JotSpot is releasing, in beta, an online, collaborative, spreadsheet.  They say it's not supposed to replace Excel ... but you have to wonder if this is a sign of things to come.

Startup JotSpot has a new spin on Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet with its JotSpot Tracker hosted online service. The Tracker service enables users to cut and paste an Excel spreadsheet directly onto a secure JotSpot Web site so that anyone within an organization can view and edit the information contained in that spreadsheet.
JotSpot describes itself as an application wiki company. The "wiki" term describes Web sites that can be accessed and changed using a browser-based user interface. JotSpot specializes in turning wikis into Web-based applications so that users can change the applications in the same way that they'd alter wiki pages.
Tracker entered public beta testing Monday and is due to appear in a final 1.0 version within the next two to three months, according to Ken Norton, JotSpot's vice president of products. Missing from Tracker's public beta are the Excel formulas needed to perform calculations on the spreadsheet, but the company plans to offer them in the final release of the product, he says.
"We don't intend to replace Excel," Norton says. "We're removing some of the friction when you try to use it in ways it wasn't intended for [such as collaborative work]. Excel is a single-user product." From: PCWorld.com

Other sources: InformationWeek

Tags: JotSpot, JotSpot Tracker, Excel, collaboration