Google Docs

This is a neat service, and I have decided to use it instead of Open Office. Back in the Nineties, Microsoft Word was the standard word-processing application. Then Sun came out with Open Office, an open source replacement for Microsoft Office. Sun had been having a long feud with Microsoft and this was one way for them to get even with it. However, Microsoft eventually wore Sun down and now it is owned by Oracle. Google is now the new face in town, and it seems to be doing better.

Part of its strategy is convincing the world that its way is better. Recently they even introduced a new programming language, Go. One of its main advantages is its speed of compilation, something that always slows down programmers as they wait for their programs to compile, to see if they work (they usually don't, so they have to fix them and wait for another compile to see if they have fixed it.) Since they are always in a hurry, speed is essential.

Speed is also essential for everybody else, no one likes to wait for his computer to finish whatever it is doing and come back to paying attention to them again. Open Office Write is a big application and takes awhile to come up. Googe docs, by contrast, is almost instantaneous. 

Also, a Google Docs document is much more compatible with HTML programs, such as TypePad, which I use for my blog. I can do a direct copy and paste from Google into TypePad, and all my formatting, included Internet links, comes across seamlessly. If you use Blogger, which is owned by Google, it is even easier. In addition, you can share your documents with others, which would be very handy in an organizational environment.

What is the drawback? Your documents are stored on Google's servers, not on yours. This means that the National Security Agency has no doubt figured out a way to copy them to their computers too. This is not a problem for me because nearly all my writing is on the Net already; and I want the world to look at them. Those less trusting of the government may need to give some thought to this.