Google Docs: Obscure but handy

Most Americans have never heard of Google's suite of office programs, collectively known as Google Docs. Duncan Riley summarizes an NPD report on TechCrunch:

A new survey by NPD has found that the 73% of Americans have never heard of Google Docs and other online office applications, but perhaps worst still only 0.5% of respondents have abandoned desktop office applications for an online alternative.

Although some will undoubtedly use the figures as proof that online applications are failing to gain popular acceptance, they do represent an opportunity waiting to happen. Google and others are working hard to change the way businesses use basic services such as word processing with a continued marketing push into the enterprise sector. The challenge is to overcome over 25+ years of what people consider to be normal (desktop apps) by proving that the online alternative is ready and capable of being used.

I find Google Docs to be quite useful. So, apparently, does Damon Darlin of the New York Times:

The advantage to Google Docs is that you can work on a document at home on one computer, store it and then grab the same document on another computer, even at the office. You could work on the document with any computer that has an Internet connection. (There’s the hitch: you can’t work on it while on a plane.)

Actually, there is another hitch. You store the documents on Google servers. That might make someone dealing with important documents nervous, if you think Google might be looking at them or that someone might hack in.

Those fears are exaggerated. But if you store documents there that prosecutors might want to look at, the documents are just as vulnerable to a search warrant or subpoena as they would be on your computer’s hard drive.

The other advantage to Google Docs is that if you give permission, other people can edit it online, even while you’re working on it. You don’t have to send the file anywhere.