Wired News editor Michael Calore used nothing but Google Apps for a month. Are Google Apps ready for prime time? For the last month, I've been working exclusively in the browser, replacing all my desktop apps with Google's web-based alternatives – Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs & Spreadsheets and so on.

I wanted to test Google Apps' viability as an office suite, but also to see how close we are to tomorrow's promise of the web-based desktop. The proliferation of web-based office suites from companies like Zoho, ThinkFree and Google have set wide-eyed technological optimists – myself included – raving breathlessly about the web workplace of the future. But the only way to see if this dream is close to reality was to put my data where my mouth is and take the plunge.

In general, I found that the browser is perfectly suitable for a variety of daily office tasks – e-mail, writing and editing stories. I also lived through several technological breakdowns that had me pounding my desk in frustration, wondering what the hell I had gotten into.

First, I decided what Mac OS X desktop software I would replace with Google tools. I deleted NetNewsWire and signed up for Google Reader. I packed up Microsoft Office and loaded up Google Docs & Spreadsheets. I removed iCal and the Adium instant-messaging client in favor of Google Calendar and Google Talk. With a tickle of apprehension, I dragged the e-mail icon from the dock and watched it disappear in a puff of digital smoke.

The first few days were filled with revelations. After routing all my e-mail traffic into Gmail, I immediately swore I would never go back to desktop e-mail again.

I set up Gmail's POP service to collect mail from my personal account, and loaded all of my existing desktop mailboxes into Gmail using GMail Loader.

I exported my iCal calendars as .ics files and, in minutes, I was rescheduling meetings with Google Calendar's fluid, drag-and-drop interface. And Google Reader – what can I say? It's a dream. The keyboard shortcuts and clean organization tools made it a snap to pick up.

Once I transitioned to my new-found Google lifestyle, I noticed a significant improvement to my work flow. I communicate with freelance writers on a daily basis. Those guys work some odd hours; sometimes I write to them from home, sometimes from work.

In my pre-Google days, I was constantly e-mailing article changes, photos and news tips from home to work and back again. Inevitably, things would fall through the cracks, leaving me scrambling to locate lost files. But with all of my messages in one place, I didn't lose e-mail anymore. Long-forgotten threads were only a search away.

Once a document arrived in my inbox, Gmail would give me the option of importing it directly to Google Docs. There, it would be accessible from any computer.

I began to use Google as a vast online storage library for anything I wanted instant access to. I put all of my deadlines and appointments, both personal and work-related, into Google Calendar.

Sitting at my desk at home in the mornings, I could see exactly what my schedule was going to be for that day. I'm not a BlackBerry guy, so this was a big step for me.

Slowly, I started using Google Notebook, a seemingly superfluous application, to keep track of items I wanted to post to my blog. By the end of the month, I was using del.icio.us less and less as my Google Notebook grew thicker.

My personal data was finally in order, and I was living la Vida Google to the fullest. As soon as I tried to incorporate my browser-based dream with the realities of my desktop-bound workplace, however, the cracks in the Google-fied work flow began to show.

Web-Based Chat Shuts Up: The first major stumbling block was Google Talk, the web-based chat client. I could chat with other Gmail users, but I couldn't connect to my co-workers on AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo Messenger. Something about the way our proxy servers are configured was blocking Google Talk.

I tried a few hacks that I found online, but they didn't work. After two days, with a cold feeling of isolation creeping in, I gave up and went back to Adium. Not Google's problem, but a problem nonetheless.

Problems With Microsoft Office: Google Docs & Spreadsheets threw a wrench into the works, too. Since the rest of my co-workers continued to use Microsoft Office on the desktop, if I wanted to share a spreadsheet or document with them, I would have to export the file to my desktop and mail it.

One of our copy editors couldn't open some docs I had exported, so I was forced to copy and paste those articles into Microsoft Word just for her. According to Jonathan Rochelle, product manager for Google Docs & Spreadsheets, these interoperability headaches could have been eradicated if we were all using the same application suite.

"It works best when everybody in the group is sharing on the same platform," he says. "The experience you'd have if you were just sharing stored docs rather than your co-workers asking you to save down to the desktop would be much closer to 'Wow, this is an incredible product' instead of 'Wow, this really stinks.'"

Do We Trust Google With Our Data?: For a brief period of time, we actually tried to move the whole newsroom over to Google applications. The idea of a centrally located cache of data accessible and editable by all was appealing, but one Wired News staffer wouldn't budge.

Citing privacy and security concerns, he refused to offer up any data – personal or otherwise – to Google. He was wary of signing up for a Google account, and he certainly didn't want to use any of the company's data-storage services.

While he sees those fears as valid, Rochelle is attempting to reverse that kind of thinking. Corporations and individuals can trust Google with their data, he says, and so far, the centralized storage in Google Apps is winning some converts. "More and more people are recognizing that it's more secure to keep all your data in one location," he says.

Rochelle draws a potent analogy: While people generally trust their e-mail systems to be secure, many of them lack a clear understanding of what goes on behind the scenes as e-mail travels from point A to point B, and how many different companies handle the data en route. "They don't really understand the structure behind their e-mail systems, but somehow they trust it more than they trust something that's new," he says.

Google public relations manager Courtney Hohne says that when it comes to users trusting Google with their personal data, a comfort curve will always exist. "You're taking a leap of faith by putting all of this stuff that means a lot to you into someone else's hands," she says. "You're trusting that they're going to do the right thing, that they'll have the right processes and protections in place and that they're going to have your data there when you want it. In that sense, we need to live up to the same expectations that your bank or your brokerage firm needs to live up to."

Browser Discombobulation: While I grew more and more accustomed to my new digital home as the days and weeks wore on, I initially found working exclusively in a web browser to be, for lack of a better word, weird.

A web-based user interface isn't as snappy as a desktop app. Menu navigation is much different, and tool palettes can't be customized or dragged around.

Granted, some applications were more forgiving than others. Google Calendar and Google Reader (even with its confounding lack of a search box) look and act much like their desktop alternatives.

But when I switched over to Google Docs & Spreadsheets, I had to take things a little more slowly until I got the hang of it. The one aspect of the desktop environment that I began to miss the most was drag-and-drop functionality. It seems so simple, but after years of interacting with my software in a very specific manner, dragging files from the desktop into applications had become an integral part of my work flow.

Bye, Bye Drag and Drop: In Gmail especially, the loss was palpable. To attach a file to an e-mail, I'd always just drag it from the desktop onto an open message. But not in the browser – there's a whole heap of clicking and menu navigation involved.

Eventually, I learned to accept that the browser had certain performance limitations that I would have to live with in exchange for the convenience of centralized storage and easy access. Rochelle says it's just the way our brains are wired from decades of using desktop apps.

"The weirdness is a product of habit for people who've been on the desktop for so long," says Rochelle. He contends that newer computer users – students and young people – grasp the browser work environment faster. "It doesn't feel that different to them because those expectations aren't there."

Tellingly, my transition to Google's suite of apps felt the most seamless when managing my own personal flow of data. It was only when I tried to match my web-powered ambitions with my desktop-centric workplace that I was forced to go back to using desktop apps for specific tasks. Had I conquered these workplace integration problems, my experiment would have come closer to total success.

Pure Google: For small to medium businesses, the reality of a 100 percent Google workplace is mostly within reach as long as everyone in the organization gets comfortable with the security and privacy issues.

However, another oft-cited disadvantage of Google Apps – and web apps in general – is their lack of reliability. After all, the applications are hosted online. What happens when your internet connection goes down?

Mozilla's recent statements regarding its planned support for offline application syncing in Firefox 3 could solve that problem. But Firefox 3 isn't due until later this year. Until then, we're tied to our broadband connections.

In the meantime, if Google added some basic functionality to its suite, the choice to move to a purely online office would make sense for many businesses and individuals. Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced Tuesday that the company is releasing a slide-show-presentation tool to take on Microsoft's PowerPoint (confirming recent rumors); adding a better contact manager for Gmail and support for multiple chat protocols in Google Talk would be good places to layer on more features.

For today's users, the convenience and low cost of web-based applications make them a compelling choice. As long as that internet connection stays up.

Mozilla: Why Desktop E-Mail Crucifies the Browser

Let's Play Two. Or Three. Baseball Widgets for Your Desktop

Inside Photoshop CS3: Faster, Better and Easier to Use