After Bing and its Scroogled campaign, Microsoft is now taking aim at Google Docs. Jake Zborowski, Microsoft’s senior product manager for Office, actually published two anti-Docs blog posts today: one hones in on document fidelity, the other – which includes a number of user testimonials – argues that Google Docs isn’t quite ready for primetime. → Read More
It was less than two years ago that cloud storage startup Box announced a major integration with Google Docs, to let people use the online service from within Box itself. But now that the startup, backed by $284 million in venture funding, is ramping up plans for more services that take it beyond storage, CEO Aaron Levie says that his company is testing out new enterprise applications of its own… → Read More
Google Forms just got a nice little refresh and now allows you to build questionnaires and collect the data in a Google Drive spreadsheet a bit easier. The new version of Forms now allows you to collaborate with others while building your questionnaires and surveys, a feature that has long been standard across the rest of the Google Docs/Drive suite. In addition, Google also added a few new… → Read More
You get an email, and it’s a pretty important one. If you’re using Gmail, there’s a lot of things you can do with it to make it stand out. Basically, so you don’t lose it. You can filter it to have a label, give it a star or mark it for your priority inbox. Once you open the email though, it’s important that all of the information presented to you is useful and concise.
Today, Google shared… → Read More
Jive CEO Tony Zingale zinged Zynga, Yammer, Oracle and you name who else in an interview with Box CEO Aaron Levie at Boxworks. But the real story comes with Zingale appearing as a mystery guest for the company’s annual event — fueling speculation that the two young enterprise challengers may have some news to share as the week goes on. → Read More
Google is trying to sell an ultralight operating system running on inexpensive hardware in the form of Chromebooks, and not really doing a great job of it. But the basic premise is solid – sometimes all you need is the cloud-based editing power of Google Docs, and when that is all you’re after, a MacBook Pro can feel like overkill. But actually, so can a Chromebook, which is why Macedonia-based… → Read More
Teambox is a service that provides its own collaboration platform that offers its own tools and integrations with third party apps. Today it is offering the capability to integrate with Box, Dropbox and Google Docs.
You hear this debate a lot about what services people prefer inside the enterprise world. Consumer services are competing with more enterprise focused apps. Dropbox is wildly… → Read More
Google always pitched Google Drive, which launched in April after a considerable period of hype, as a replacement for Google Docs. What many users didn’t realize, it seems, is that Google will indeed completely replace Google Docs with Drive later this year. While Drive is still opt-in at this time, it looks like the forced transition is coming soon, as Google has started to alert users that… → Read More
Google today announced that it is bringing web fonts to Google Docs. Thanks to this update, you can now use 450 new fonts in your Google documents. These are the same 450 fonts Google already features on its Web Fonts site for web designers. In addition, Google also announced that it added over 60 new templates to its template gallery over the last month, improved support for screenreaders in Docs… → Read More
Today’s PSA is brought to you by the letter L. What word starts with L? Linen! If you’ve ever used Google Docs, you’ll recall that the interface is wildly ugly. Well no longer. Using a plugin and a nice big Linen JPG, you can turn GDocs into a thing of beauty.
For whatever reason (probably for SEO), a Brisbane, Australia driving school is hosting this Linen background for GDocs and is offering… → Read More
It’s safe to say we’ve all been in a situation where a few extra pairs of eyes could come in handy, and the folks at Google know just how that feels. In an effort to give people that backup when they need it, they’ve just pushed out a useful new update to the Google Docs Android app. → Read More
In case there was still any doubt about the long-rumored “GDrive’s” existence, a page now appearing on Google’s search results offers a pretty clear indication that something is going on. On Writely.com – the online word processing service Google acquired in 2006 – a test page is now appearing with a title that reads “test page for Platypus (GDrive).”
Well, there you have it. → Read More
About a month ago, some additions to the code in Chromium (the open source browser behind Chrome) suggested that the long-fabled “GDrive” may be on the verge of actually launching. A week later, user-facing proof started appearing. Then earlier today, sharp-eyed social media consultant, Johannes Wigand, spotted something interesting during a presentation at a Google-sponsored event: something that… → Read More
Amid all the big announcements at this year’s WWDC keynote, there was an undercurrent that was subtle, but important.
“It just works.” Steve Jobs kept saying this over and over again on stage. When Jobs does this, it’s never an accident. It’s a message.
And it’s a message that was underscored by another word. “Automatically.” Jobs must have said it a couple dozen times during the… → Read More
While it hasn’t always been clear just how big of a bet Google was going to make on Chrome OS, after Google I/O today, it seems very clear that they’re very serious. With the launch of Chromebooks, Google is aiming to strike right at the heart of Microsoft and the Windows stronghold. But they know that one big hold up remains before a browser-based OS can be everywhere: offline access.
With that… → Read More
For years, we’ve been hearing that the future of productivity is in the cloud. But while visions of real-time collaboration leave technophiles like me starry-eyed, it’s a prospect that means one thing to millions of people: leaving the familiar turf of Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007 so that they can learn their way around yet another application, not to mention some pricey upgrades. But Google… → Read More
There’s a new mystery on the web today. In an otherwise boring video about “Google Lookup in Google Docs,” the search giant appears to have inadvertently revealed a new Google Docs product called “Punch.” So what on Earth is it?
The blog Google Operating System (which spotted the feature) has its guess: “Maybe Google Punch is a free-form document that lets you combine data from other documents… → Read More
You can definitely call me an Apple fanboy: I’ve bought practically every device that Steve Jobs has made since 1985—when I got my first Macintosh. I own an Apple TV, several iPods, a Macbook Pro, a Macbook Air, an iMac, two iPhones, and two iPads (one was a gift). For various reasons, I need to use Microsoft Outlook and Windows, so I run these in a virtual machine on my Mac. But this fanboy… → Read More
Slowly but surely, Google keeps trying to chip away at Microsoft’s core Office productivity suite with Google Docs, its free online word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software. Today, Google Drawing is being added to the mix and Google Docs and Spreadsheets is getting a major realtime update. Both are being announced at Google’s Atmosphere event.
Google Drawings is not really a… → Read More
Google’s recently announced $25 million acquisition of DocVerse represented one saga of an ongoing war between Google and Microsoft over dominance in the productivity suite place. Today, Israeli enterprise software company Mainsoft is launching a Docverse-like plug-in that may up the ante in the battle. Harmony is launching free plug-ins that bring Google Docs documents and Microsoft SharePoint… → Read More
Tonight is the 82nd annual Academy Awards. Some people watch the show for the movies. Some watch it for the glamor. And some, watch it to gamble. And Google is making that easier than ever.
While the show is almost always way too long, one way to get into it is to have an Oscar pool, where everyone picks who they think will win in each category. Google has set up a special Google Docs template… → Read More
Zoho is undoubtedly the lesser known name and an underdog in the productivity suite race with Google and Microsoft. But the startup has a compelling strategy: Zoho continuously launches integrations with its competitors and also iterates on it product to offer new and innovative products. Previously, Zoho has launched various integrations with Google sign-ins and with Google Apps. Today, Zoho is… → Read More
Collaboration on editing documents and spreadsheets is becoming a key feature in productivity suites with the emergence of Google Docs, Zoho, Etherpad and others. Even Microsoft is adding collaboration features to Excel in its new version of Office. While Microsoft is adding this limited functionality to its new version of office, DocVerse offers a plug-in for Word, PowerPoint and Excel that lets… → Read More
Sharing a document online is not something many people do yet. And for those of us with our toes in the water, it is usually a one-off thing. You want to share a spreadsheet around a single event, or are working with someone outside your organization. But as you get used to it, you become more comfortable and start using Google Docs more frequently or find one or two people who really like to… → Read More
Google has been aggressively marketing Google Apps to schools, recently launching a centralized site designed to recruit universities and colleges. Now, Google is tweaking Google Docs, which is a part of Google Apps’ productivity suite, by adding a few student-friendly features.
Google Docs has added an equation editor so students can actually complete math problems within a document, allowing… → Read More
Google Docs has changed the landscape of computing office suites. By moving everything to the cloud, accessing documents is easier now than it ever has been. But unlike a lot of the other things Google is working on, Google Docs isn’t particularly social. Socialwok, a startup that won the demopit competition today at TechCrunch50 adds a great social layer to Google Docs.
Right now, if you want to… → Read More
Microsoft and Google have seen their rivalry kicked up a notch in recent weeks. First, Google announced Chrome OS, the company’s first operating system. Then Microsoft announced the new version of Office with major cloud app support. Then Microsoft announced its deal to take over Yahoo’s search business. Starting today, Google is back on the offensive, with a major promotional campaign to get the… → Read More
AppJet’s EtherPad, the real-time Google Docs-like wiki tool we wrote about last fall, has been upgraded to be prettier, more user-friendly and far more collaborative than before. EtherPad was the brainchild of former Googlers (who founded online programming tool and Y Combinator funded AppJet) who wanted a real-time, yet group oriented way to collaborate on notes and documents. Thus, EtherPad was… → Read More
On the Google Docs blog today, the company took the time to make a non-announcement. Basically, there’s a bunch of words that bury the real story: That Google Docs will soon be launching a “brand new shiny interface.”
Hmmm. I wonder why. Obviously, earlier this week Microsoft laid out its plans for Office 2010, which includes a web-based component meant to take on Google Docs. But once again… → Read More
The timing of Google’s announcement of Chrome OS was curious. I don’t mean the fact that Google moved up the post on it by a day when some details leaked out, I mean the fact that they were announcing it on some seemingly random date in July, well before anything is actually ready to show off. Now, we likely know why.
On Monday, Microsoft is set to unveil its plans to counter the attack Google… → Read More
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