Google Docs is a web-based word-processor, form, spreadsheet and presentation application software offered at no charge. Three services, Writely, Spreadsheets, and a presentation product were merged into a single application and released in September 2007. It provides a platform for users to create and edit documents while collaborating with other users in real-time.

Google Docs allows for documents to be shared and edited by multiple users simultaneously. The documents can be created online or offline within the application or can be imported or sent in email. Since they are saved on Google servers, they can be retrieved from any computer and are safe from data loss in case of a hard drive failure. Documents can be saved in a number of formats including HTML, Word, text, OpenOffice and PDF and can be archived and shared.

Because of its enhanced accessibility and sharing options, Google Docs is becoming increasingly popular for business use. Users of the free service can be notified by email when any changes are made to spreadsheets keeping teams apprised of updates. Mobile phone users are able to browse documents with a mobile browser and versions of Google Docs for the iPhone allow for viewing presentations and editing spreadsheets.

The drawbacks to the service include a storage limitation and that files must be loaded or downloaded individually. Documents are limited to 500k or less and images cannot exceed 2MB. A total of 5,000 documents, 1,000 spreadsheets, 5,000 images, and 100 PDFs are allowed and presentations must be limited to under 10MB.

Categories: Glossary
Tags: document sharing, Google Docs