ComTech News

OK, so this is not new, not at all, Google Documents and Spreadsheets has been around for quite a while. My guess is though that it is not yet being used by many people who could benefit from it highly. We here at Comtech News are no exception!

Recently Ben Fitts, Mark Barrera and I have started to collaborate on a new project to produce Internet Marketing Video Training and have formed our own company known as The ICE Marketing Group LLC.

The nuances of forming a company, setting up contracts, making sure each partner is able to contribute, etc are almost over whelming. As we began to collaborate we thought about a secure blog or a secure wiki but neither seemed best for the vast diversity we would need to have for the various aspects of getting our new company and product off the ground.

Our experience started out with a simple document that was just for brainstorming subjects for our Internet marketing videos. This document quickly became a working punch list with each partner adding subjects and signing up to do videos then marking them complete as soon as the video was done and uploaded.

What really struck the three of us was

~ How efficient this process was, users logging in at any time to modify a document or see the last revisions by other partners.

~  How easy it was to use this service. There was no need to read any support documentation. If you have a basic knowledge of word and excel you will be able to use Google Docs with no real educational curve.

~  The ability to highlight revisions so you can see what has changed is a very nice feature.

~  How convenient it really is to be able to work on your projects from any location.

I have also begun to compose all my documents in Google Docs even if I choose to convert them to Excel or Word on my hard drive the knowledge that my files are available anywhere and backed up online gives me a good feeling.

I felt that Google Docs might be the precursor to the death of all desktop applications when I first heard about it. After using it all I can say is I have way underestimated the threat. Sharing your documents is very easy and intuitive and anyone with a Google account can be given secure editing or just viewing access in a matter of seconds.

I would advise you to go and give this service a try right away. I challenge anyone to use this for all documentation for 15 days and then ever stop using it. If I were Microsoft I would be kicking the development of Office Live into high gear. I think for every person that tries Google Documents in the meantime, Microsoft may be loosing the client for all eternity. In my estimation for a relatively new platform, the efficiency, reliability and ease of use could not be much better. You can even publish documents to the web for public viewing or to a blog or other application.

The desktop application has taken another bad wound; all that remains is for more users to give this service a try,

~ Jack Spirko

Technorati Tags: google, google documents, google docs, online applications, desktop replacement, document sharing, team collaboration

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