Google Docs Gets Geared

I think just about every tech blogger has, at some point, chided Google for letting competitors (such as Zoho) beat them to offline document access and editing. For instance, when I mentioned Zoho Writer offline access back in November I harped a bit…

Today, the Google Docs blog announced “Bringing the Cloud With You.” This is advanced notice that we’ll be seeing the offline functionality rolled out in the coming months. As expected, it is powered by Google Gears. Just for documents to start with. Presumably spreadsheets and presentations are coming next?

Check the video out on the article. Aside from some [presumably intended] corniness, it’s interesting and worth a look. The point being stressed is how seamless this will work.

However, I didn’t catch if we can create new documents when in offline mode or not. I’d certainly hope so… that’s seamless too, right?

Personally, I can’t wait. For my day job, this just might help migrate more folks to Google Docs as part of our Google Apps.

As for me, though I tend to be a Zoho loyalist, I’ve been spending more time with the Google docs stuff just because it’s already integrated with all my other Google Apps stuff. Adding this offline access will just make this that much more appealing to me for use on my laptops.

Possibly Related posts:

1. Google Docs / Gmail integration
2. Offline Word Processing
3. Zoho Writer Gets "True" Offline Mode
4. Zoho Docs: The Glue
5. Google Docs Spreadsheet Facelift and Gadgets