The exact day was at the beginning of this week, specifically, last Monday, October 11, when Google Docs celebrated its 15th anniversary. But since it is never too late if the happiness is good, we echo the news even if it is with a little delay, because it is worth it. Google’s office suite in the cloud may not be number one in its category, but none has made as much of a dent in this one as the one at hand.
Have you ever found yourself exchanging email attachments with multiple colleagues, trying to collaborate on a document, only to have someone jump in at the last minute with corrections in an outdated version? Or emailing you a document just so you can move it from one computer to another? How about trying to manage a large guest list, for example for a wedding, when you have updates coming to you from different directions and at different times, with other people trying to make their own changes? “
This is how the Internet giant Google Docs introduced the world on October 11, 2006. And it’s curious, because it shows how time has passed and how much progress has been made since then. At that time the term cloud was not even used, beyond in reduced circles and with a meaning that is not the current one. Not only that: the references, for example, to “email you a document just so I can move it from one computer to another” was as is: Google Drive would still take six years to announce, and it was two years before services like Dropbox appeared.
Thus, the appearance of Google Docs on the scene was truly disruptive, even though it was not the pioneer; but it came from Google and was immediately popular, despite the huge shortcomings it presented in its first iteration. With these functions Google Docs was launched:
- Create, manage, and access documents and spreadsheets in one secure location
- Easily collaborate with others, online and in real time
- Export and import from a wide variety of file formats
- Share them with others as just view
- Post them on a blog or as an HTML page
How much has improved since its inception Google Docs is not enough for an article, it is enough for a book, but more interesting than that aspect, which Google sums up in its reminder of the date not with a review of the growth of the service, but with a glance to the current Google Docs that clears any doubt of its current level. From my point of view, however, the most interesting thing about the appearance of Google Docs on the scene is its value as an alternative to the great office suite of commercial software, Microsoft Office.
It is true that Microsoft Office is still number one in its category, as it is true that since before the appearance of Google Docs, but also after, there have been quality alternatives with which to alleviate dependence on Microsoft software. But none made or continues to make him as ‘pupa’ as Google Docs. None. It should be remembered in this regard that Google Docs was not born as a complement to Google Drive, which did not yet exist, but to Gmail, which, although it had only been in business for a couple of years, was already showing itself as the dreamed alternative to the old Hotmail.
For more information about Google Docs, the article that Google has dedicated to it, in which, in addition to reviewing its history and development, they point out a list of “things about Google Docs” that you may be interested in knowing, if you are a user of the service. There is a bit of everything: trivia, tips and tricks, etc. We leave you with the video celebrating fifteen years of Google Docs.
