Gearing up for Google Docs.

It's coming, folks. Google Docs is a nice little document suite with word processor, Excel-style spreadsheet, and (admittedly) fairly mundane Power Point visual presentation applications all for free and all based online. There's also Google Gears, which allows users to take online applications offline. Let's say you're on a train and you want to type up a quick paper. You don't have internet access, so log onto your Google account, load up Google Docs and write your paper. Once you get to your destination and your internet access is restored, your paper will then be uploaded onto your Google account and stored on their server. This is the world of taking online apps offline. The problem is, currently only Google Reader (Google's RSS and Atom feed reader app) is the only online Google application that uses Google Gears. That, however, will soon change.

Google said on Monday it is taking the next step to make its Web-based software useful in the real world of spotty Internet access by allowing users to edit word processing documents offline.

The world's top Internet company said it will begin over the next several weeks to allow users of its Google Docs word processing application to edit documents without an active Web connection, on planes, trains and other disconnected spots.

The offline feature of Google Docs temporarily stores documents changes on a user's local computer. Once reconnected to the Internet, any changes the user made will automatically be synchronized and stored on Google-hosted computers.
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For things like visual presentations, I think that Power Point is always going to rule the field. Meanwhile, Google's spreadsheet and word processor both have the basic features down and are very user friendly, but they were only available online, which limited potential availability of use for some, especially if you lost your internet connection. Currently, a few pundits are speculating that being able to take Google Docs offline will cut heavily into Microsoft's MS Office share of the office suite pie. I think that's lofty thinking, as many office personnel are often not wont to changing from their learned applications. Google could easily stand a chance though, as it is incredibly easy to adapt to.

The enticement of being able to use Google Docs to send office memos, collectively work on project-shared spreadsheets, and so on will certainly be noticed amongst management. And the lack of having to install, configure, and troubleshoot software bundles and various programs (not to mention license fees) does make Google's Docs suite (pardon the lameness) a sweet deal.

You could be working on a group-project presentation paper where each individual is assigned a specific section. As you work in the office, this document is periiodically updated, not just for you, but for all other users online that are working on this shared project. As you head home you continue to work on it offline during the subway ride. Then, when you get home and you connect to your home network, it will upload and upddate the files, giving all of your co-workers your updated revisions and you their revisions. If you need to, you can use Google's chat feature to VoiP with your co-workers, all editing their respective different sections, updating the entire document as they work via Google's servers. That's the power of the Google bundle. Interoperability across multiple platforms on a unified and widely available distribution format. This takes the slogan of "work smarter" to entirely dizzying new heights.

I, personally, do use Google Docs. It's easy to use, can be used on any computer, and doesn't require any serious computation on the end-user's computer. Google Calendar has already been shown to have a few notices worked in during various updates, ensuring that Google Gears compatibility isn't far away. However, this is the major step that many have patiently been waiting for, and quite rightly so. The potential impact that this can have on business work-teams is immense, and I know of no single work bundle that can provide anywhere this kind of work-based communication structure. Especially not without a serious tech team and definitely not for free.