Google Docs is one of the more crucial platforms for Google, largely thanks to its role in pushing the limits of the cloud while simultaneously competing with Microsoft’s productivity tools. Users, who are able to access the Google suite (including Gmail, Calendar, and Docs) free of charge, come out as the real winners. But “free” doesn’t mean Google Docs isn’t pushing the envelope in features. The company is hard at work bringing new features to the table. If you’re looking to find out more about Google Docs’upcoming features, today is the day.
Five Google Docs team members are on Reddit, answering questions as candidly as possible. DJ Lee (engineer), Jeff Harris (product manager), Ronald Ho (product manager), Scott Johnston (product manager), and Teresa Wu (community manager) will be on this Reddit page answering questions from Noon to 6:00pm ET (so, from about an hour ago).
We’ve already gotten some of the bigger questions out of the way, but expect more throughout the day and feel free to contribute your own questions and comments. Here are some of the noteworthy responses posted in the hour after the Q&A began:
- Google Docs offline availability is still slated for later this summer. According to Jeff Harris, the reason is that, “We used to have offline with Google Gears, but it became pretty clear that plug-ins weren’t the right approach. We’ve been reimplementing offline using HTML5 standards like AppCache, File API, and IndexDB.”
- YouTube and other embedding features are a focus for the Docs team. Further embedding features, possibly including YouTube embedding in docs, may become available in the near future.
- Editing documents from a mobile device (especially an Android device) will see improvements in the near future.
What are you waiting for? Head to the page now to read, ask, and rate the questions. You’ll have few better opportunities to interact with five representatives of a Google team who are present just to answer your heartfelt questions.
[via Google Docs Twitter and Reddit]
