Google Docs goes offline
- Added:
- Apr 02, 2008
Google is taking its word processing software Google Docs offline, in a move that is seen to challenge Microsfot office.
Google said users of its Google Docs word processing application can use Google Gears to save and then edit documents without being connected to the Internet.
"Cloud computing is great, but you need the cloud to make it work," Philip Tucker, software engineer, Google Docs, wrote in a Google blog. "On an airplane, on the shuttle commuting to work, or at home when my cable modem goes down, I want to work on my documents. And, until now, that usually meant saving a copy and editing on the desktop.
"Now there's a better solution. With Google Docs offline, I can take my little piece of the cloud with me wherever I go," Tucker added. "Once enabled, I have a local version of my document list and editors, along with my documents."
The editing feature, Google Gears, is an application programming interface (API) introduced by Google last year to application developers to create Web applications that can run offline.