How Google Drive Change The Way Of Work
/
0 Comments
The name of the game with Google Drive documents
is "collaboration." It doesn't matter if you're all on desktop PCs or
tablets or smartphones, more than one person at a time can work on a
document—up to 50 simultaneously. To be part of the collaboration, the document
has to have been shared with those people; the limit for sharing is 200. If
more than 50 collaborates try to edit a document, the late-comers can only view
the changes. The owner(s) of the document can set who has edit privileges.
Raise your hand if you remember Writely. A
four-person company called Upstartle launched the online-only word processor in
August 2005, taking advantage of a then-new browser technology called AJAX.
It allowed users to instantly save and retrieve content generated in the
browser but stored on the server. And it worked—so well that Google bought
Upstartle less than a year later.
At the time, a product like Writely was
unique—software that didn't come on a CD—but still considered a gamble. Pundit
Om Malik said of the purchase, "Convincing the masses that their documents
will be safe [online]...may be quite challenging, even if it's FREE!"
Fast forward eight years. Google's online office
suite of tools has done nothing but grow.
Now under the umbrella of Google
Drive (formerly Google Docs), you'll find a file management and storage service
as well as the various apps—which still get collectively called Google Docs, even by
Google. The apps include: a word processor (sometimes simply called Docs—it's
Writely, all grown up), spreadsheet (Sheets),
presentations (Slides),
drawing, and forms.
It's a full suite of tools that now takes on Microsoft's
far more mature Office; in fact, Google Drive's very presence in the market
arguable drove Microsoft to create its own Office Online versions
of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to work with its OneDrive storage/synch service.
Drive—one of our Editors' Choice
suites—is a serious set of tools for serious (or fun) work, all
entirely free. But it pays to know more than just the basics. That's why we've
put together these some tips for you on how to get the most out of Google Drive.
Share your own advice for fellow Drive-rs in the comments below.
