So, I just received a Word document in my Gmail, and noticed I had some options about what to do with it that I hadn’t really pondered thoroughly about before. “Download” - yeah, I know what that one does. “View as HTML” - OK, I get that one, too. Then there’s “open as a Google document”. Hang on, I thought. What the heck does that do? How long has that option been there, anyway? I don’t think I’ve tried clicking on it before. Well… click.
Yeah. Google has just given me an online word processor. That’s right. Online. Word. Processor. For free. Yup, you can edit stuff, save stuff, print stuff, you can select fonts and stuff, you can spellcheck stuff, and it’s all sweet and unobtrusive and googletastic and nice and cuddly. Man, I love those guys. I mean, jeez, it’s just so… NICE of them. I’m really touched. I can’t remember any girlfriend I’ve had who has ever done stuff like this for me on a Friday morning.
I’m not sure if I’ll actually ever *use *the thing, but… man, what a good idea. And such a nice sentiment. They love me, they really do, they’re looking out for me, and I love them too.
This is somewhat old news. Google really needs to work on their advertising. I mean, not everyone skims Slashdot or Reddit or Digg or Boing Boing or any of the other sites that make it sound like I lost vital parts of my brain in a stroke.
Powerpoint is a PoS, but it’s ubiquitous. Any alternative to it gets my vote, even though I suspect Google’s presentation engine will be based on it. I can’t get into the site of the company it bought up - Tonic Systems - to check it out. I do know the patent talks about Java to run it though.
It’s great, I agree. Most everything I do on a computer is on the same laptop, but once in a while I won’t be on this machine and the Google Docs are perfect for that. If there’s something I want available to me anywhere I may be, it’s saved there. Open my Google, there’s my document.
Ditto. I switched to gmail a ways back and am still constantly blown away with how much better the interface is than the traditional outlook express clone.
I remember the beginners docs were like “yeah, we know you’re lost but stick with it–you’ll like it more after you’ve used it for a while”. And they were right.
Somehow I’m not surprised that a) it has that option and b) it just kinda works like you’d expect it to. Pretty typical for them.
I sincerely disagree. Gmail’s turns have all been for the better, even their mobile interface is good. The search engine is like it’s always been. Google Earth is good, google maps is great. The Docs feature works well, they have more opening alternatives (and good ones, at that) than any other web-based mail provider. They’re free, have a shitload of storage capacity and all their interfaces are all uncluttered and nice.
The only controversy over them that I can understand not apprecciating is probably the brouha over accepting censorship in China.
I don’t know where Gentle Robot is coming up with that either. I assume it is a case of Mass Appeal = Bad.
I first hooked up with Google back when she was in high school back in 2000 or so. I did her so many ways I started looking around for an “unabridged” version of the Kama Sutra but it seems that I exhausted all of the possibilities (and her) already. She went off to college to make something of herself she claimed. Apparently it worked and she got really popular and ended up with loads of money. However, she started hooking up with shady street characters like YouTube and I had to break off most of the relationship. I still make love to Google whenever I see her and enjoy it but it is an open relationship these days.
I needed to do some math and didn’t have my calculator handy. I put the math problem in the Google thingie, thinking Google would find a calculator for me. Nope. Google did the math. How cool is that?
No, not me. Google is still my number one. It’s just that she seems to do just about everyone these days: straights, gays, men, women, even kids. She is a real little whore but she is the best at it so people put up with it and keep coming.
Seriously, I love Google. She knows what I want even before I do. She gently questions me when I have a typo…“do you mean blah blah blah?”. She almost always finds what I’m looking for on her first page. She lets me fly across the world. And now she lets me create docs and spreadsheets.
