Google Gears for Docs - coming soon?!

Looks like Google Gears might be coming to Google Docs oh so soon! Well, I hope its soon.

I've been using Google Docs more and more - especially for group work in my classes which has been a huge benefit when working with multiple people on one document. Its cool to see sentences come out of no where and appear on the screen.

Safari and Google Gears - Coming Soon!

Sweet! I knew I read that Google Gears worked with Safari - but when I went to download it there was no such luck. Turns out it only works with the latest version of WebKit - so I take it Safari 3 is going to be rockin the Gears.

Now if only Google Documents worked with Safari - here's hoping Leopard and Safari 3 get things straightened all out.

Google Office Widget

Oh this is bloody fantastic! Google launched a little Thanksgiving treat in the form of this little gadget for the Google Homepage to quick launch the recent documents created or modified in the Google Docs & Spreadsheets application. This is something I have been waiting for - though a dashboard widget would be really sweet too!

Google 'Office'

Alright, its actually called Google Docs & Spreadsheets, but Google Office sounds better to me. Read/WriteWeb reports this morning on the merger of Writely and Google Spreadsheets (RIP Writely). I read through the comments and most people seem distressed at the disappearance of the 'lively' Writely interface in favor of the drab and cold Google one. The Writely interface was nice, but the merger of these two applications and the development of new ones is certainly going to outway the changes. Perhaps the most intriguing tidbit is the mention of Google dabbling with the possibility of desktop versions of their applications for when someone wants to work on a document offline. I'm just hoping a Mac version would make it into that dabbling.

Update: looks like the new Google Office has received a few integration points with Blogger as well.

YACA: Yet Another Calendar App

downloadsquad makes a good point about all the new calendar apps that keep popping up all over the net - Google Calendar works just fine. Now, choice is a good thing, but where is the business model for some of these calendar sites. Web 2.0 is all about do one thing, do it really REALLY well, build commuhttp://beta.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifnity around that one thing and then monetize it. I'm cool with that, but find a new niche people - there must be a point of declining returns in this segment.

Each new online tends to have a 'cool' feature that sets it apart from the others, but I've been finding the Google family of products to be rather appealing. Especially as they all start to work with each other - having everything in one house is getting rather convenient.

Well look at that

Looks like Google might be getting a little more serious about its Mac support, which at times has been lacking. http://beta.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

A Googler in Apple

What will the future hold? What does it mean? Does it mean anything?! I might not know the answers, and I wouldn't make grandiose assumptions since it is just a seat on the board, but this does come as most interesting news. Espectially considering how Google and Apple are both shaping up to take on ever more of Microsoft's 'turf' and as Microsoft is setting to take over every conceivable market reagardless.