Google Docs is on a roll! Two weeks ago, the announced a great feature for Docs users: Sharable folders. With this addition to Google Docs, users don't have to share a doc again and again with their coworkers, they can just assign it to the shared folder. Today, Google brings more to its online office platform: Liberate your Google Docs with Convert, Zip and Download:
The feature lets you bundle your Google Docs in a format of your choice (MS Office, Open Office, PDF, etc.) and download them as a zip file. No longer do you have to download each document individually, which can take a lot of time if you have hundreds of documents like I do!
That is... Pretty awesome! Keep in mind though: while you can download zip files, you cannot upload zip files.
Google Docs is starting to break the barriers down between online and desktop files. It is almost entering in a collateral race with DropBox, the service that automatically syncs folders across computers, and keeps a record of everything online for backup. Google Docs and DropBox are two very different products right now, but if you consider Google's browser approach to an operating system, then those two products might be heading in the same direction!
I have been using DropBox to collaborate on video projects. The advantage of DropBox is that you can easily share media files (less complicated than Youtube), and you don't have to upload anything: You just drop your files in your Dropbox folder.
Now how different would it be if, when you started your computer, your operating system would be an hybrid of web browser and local desktop. Your files are stored online, but you can open them directly on a desktop-based text editor (or a text-editing app). From that standpoint, their would be no upload implied (it would all happen in the background), and sharing files will have reach the same simplicity as DropBox. This is what Google is slowly getting to with its browser Chrome.
My point: By filling the gap between desktop folders and online folders, Google Docs is coming even closer to threatening Microsoft's desktop-based approach. For this specific reason, Microsoft should buy DropBox and integrate it to Windows 7. (Too late for that I guess!) All of us generate an enormous amount of files every year (the ones we create, but also our bills, administration documents, receipts...). Some of those files are being digitalized today, and sent over to our email inbox. We need a way to easily organize all that information in a time-efficient manner:
"Convert, Zip and Download" now joins dozens of other liberation features across our product offerings, ranging from Blogger's full blog downloads to email export from Gmail using IMAP and POP3. (From Google Blog)
Good times ahead of us people, good times!
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