Google Apps soon to work offline?
Scott Johnston from Google was on hand at an event held last week to provide a glimpse into what Google has in store for its popular Apps service.
Arguably the most significant announcement of the night was that of Google's plans to make Google Apps completely usable when offline. Google Gears will be the route via which users will be able to use Google Docs, Gmail and Calendar whilst offline.
Elsewhere, Google Sites, the evolved version of Google Pages will be released in 2008. Featuring built in collaboration tools, Google Sites will allow businesses to create entire intranets and more.
The following information, collated by blogger Andrew Miller, is taken from a Q&A session at the event:
- Google Sites: Scheduled to be launched sometime next year (2008), Google Sites will expand upon the Google Page Creator already offered within Apps. Based on JotSpot collaboration tools, Sites will allow business to set up intranets, project management tracking, customer extranets, and any number of custom sites based on multi-user collaboration.
- Will users be able to edit docs, spreadsheets and presentation offline? Scott’s answer was yes, and that the Google Gears plugin would handle the offline work. In addition, Google Gears support is in the works for Gmail and Google Calendar.
- What happens when somebody edits a document offline at the same time another user is editing the online version? The same algorithm that reconciles simultaneous editing will apply here when the offline version is merged back into the online version. Changes will be versioned the same way, so basically in chronological order.
- Will Google docs have OCR capabilities for importing .pdfs or other graphical files? Not yet, but perhaps someday. Scott couldn’t comment on the “roadmap” for future enhancements. However, the collaborative Google Sites (based on JotSpot) will allow for upload and storage of any file type.
- Will GrandCentral be integrated into Google Apps? If so, when? Again, Scott didn’t comment on the timing but said they are working on it and it is a “huge priority” for them.
- Will Google Spreadsheets ever have advanced features like pivot tables, macros or offline database integrations? (This was actually my question) Scott said they are constantly trying to find the balance between speed and utility. It will never be a heavy duty analytics program because that would be too heavy and bulky for the average user.
- Will Google Apps support video conferencing in addition to Google Talk and Chat? Scott’s answer, “Not yet”. I got the impression from his body language that it’ll come someday, but nothing more was said.
The move toward web based solutions is happening quickly and Google are hoping to make big strides in 2008. Boasting "simple, powerful communication and collaboration tools for your organisation without the usual hassle and cost". we're sure to see a lot more from the Google Apps division in the near future.
