Google welcomes ISO decision on OOXML
Google welcomes the ISO decision to not approve the fast track of Office Open XML (OOXML) proposed standard DIS 29500 (ECMA 376). — Our engineers conducted an independent analysis of the OOXML specification and found several areas of concern …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google's statement lands ten days after the ISO vote that rejected Microsoft's OOXML fast-track bid, and two months after the specification had already failed to gain approval in the US. The company is doing more than cheering the outcome: it says its own engineers reviewed DIS 29500 independently and found several areas of concern, putting Google's technical weight behind the 'no' bloc.
The welcome matters commercially as well as procedurally — a month earlier Google added StarOffice to Google Pack, giving it a shipping office suite built on open formats while Microsoft lobbied for OOXML ratification.
First-order effects
- Microsoft now has to take its specification back through the ISO process rather than the five-month fast track it sought, answering the concerns raised by national bodies and by Google's engineering review.
- Google gains a public, standards-backed argument for its own documents strategy, with StarOffice already distributed through Pack and its web-based office tools positioned as the open-format alternative.
Second-order effects
- Government and enterprise buyers weighing document formats get a defensible reason to hold off on OOXML mandates, strengthening ODF's hand in procurement debates where Microsoft had expected ratification to close the argument.
- Other vendors and national standards bodies that opposed the ballot are handed a template: independent technical review plus public commentary proved enough to stall even a proposal backed by the dominant desktop vendor.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, standards bodies face pressure to treat vendor-driven fast tracks with more skepticism, making document interoperability a contested, multi-year negotiation instead of a rubber stamp — and keeping file-format choice a live competitive front between Google and Microsoft.
The trend: Document formats have become a strategic battleground where open-standards coalitions, led here by Google, challenge desktop lock-in through standards bodies rather than product features alone.