We all were overjoyed when Google recently released new Google Docs capabilities, chief among them folder sharing among different accounts. However, on the flip side of the coin, there are now widespread reports of performance issues due to software bugs following the recent updates.
Users are having difficulties with file uploading, exportation, and printing from inside of Google Docs. It could be, as we have yet to receive official word from Google, that some of these issues are holdovers from the previous build of Google Docs, but it would seem that at a minimum the issues have intensified.
Google Docs, built from the purchased Writely, and now challenged for its life by Google Wave, has had a long storied history of buggy code, 500 errors and the like. However, in recent months the stability of the Docs ecosystem has improved, which throws the recent problems into sharp contrast.
Google Docs, of course, is the suite of lightweight office tools provided by Google for free to users, although companies using Google Apps for Business can in fact pay for the services.
There has been much discussion lately of the perceived, actual, and potential reliability of the cloud. Software solutions such as Mozy have been pushing the comfort envelope for file storage online. People have had similar qualms about the safety of documents stored by Google in the cloud. With disasters such as the Danger/Sidekick debacle fresh in mind, having more issues from a cloud base service is hardly heartening.
Any bets as to how fast Google responds and fixes this one?
you gotta be kidding me if you think Wave is a threat to Docs… google would not have two products that are competing for the in the same space. I have not used Wave as of yet..dont even have an account yet. But it sounds to me like Wave is a more enhanced Google Talk that will allow us to interact with friends, classmates, and coworkers and share documents we have saved in our gmail and docs accounts.
If anything I would say Wave is next gen chat… not next gen Google Docs. That is my take from what I have heard about Wave.
Your right Alex, I am in the wrong. Sorry if I offended you.
I will say that it is possibly the idea behind Wave is to replace not only Docs but also gMail and Google Chat when people are collaborating on a document. That said, I dont think gMail and Docs will ever be replaced with Wave because there is still that open ended 20% (as you said you have used Wave for only 80% of what you used Docs for).
Again, sorry if I offended you a few minutes ago.
If it replaces 80%, how is that not a big deal?
Selected quotes from the original article:-
Users are having difficulties with file uploading, exportation, and printing from inside of Google Docs.”
“Google Docs, built from the purchased Writely, and now challenged for its life by Google Wave, has had a long storied history of buggy code, 500 errors and the like.”
“There has been much discussion lately of the perceived, actual, and potential reliability of the cloud. … People have had similar qualms about the safety of documents stored by Google in the cloud. … With disasters such as …”
Extracts from user’s comments so far:
“it’s driving me nuts”
“i did want to upload more of my old documents and cant do it right now … I too hope they fix it … mass upload feature was nice even though it was creating duplicates of some of the documents …”
“Software solutions such as Mozy have been pushing the comfort envelope for file storage online.”
I work for Mozy, and I am curious about this statement. Mozy does backup of local information to the cloud, and stores that information so that you can recover data that you accidentally delete locally (even previous versions). That should *increase* comfort level, but that’s not the context of your article. So, what do you mean?
–Ted
I’m hoping tomorrow, it’s driving me nuts.
I disagree 100%. I use Wave for 80% of what I used to use Docs for.
I would not say its driving me nuts.. but i did want to upload more of my old documents and cant do it right now if I dont want to do it one by one… I too hope they fix it tomorrow. That mass upload feature was nice even though it was creating duplicates of some of the documents it was better than having to manually upload each of my documents 1-by-1.
As I said, I have not yet had a chance to use Wave because I dont have an account.
Right, and my point was it was a bit odd that you were telling me that I was wrong when you have not even used wave. At least for myself, my point stands.
and of the 20% I talk about above… that is why I think it is a far-fetched idea that Wave is a threat to Docs.. or even gMail (as I have read in other places that it is a threat to gMail)
Haha, you didn’t offend me. I have received *many* actually offensive comments, yours was just full of passion.
I think I phrased it poorly, Ted. I love Mozy! I tweet about it, use it, and reccomend it. My point was that people are becoming more comfortable with the general concept of data online. Whether it is for backup or just general storage was not important.
By the way Ted, thanks for the great work with Mozy!
Alex:
Thanks for the clarification. I wish I could take some of that credit, but I just recently joined Mozy, but I’ll pass the commendations along to my many colleagues who made Mozy what it is today.
Nevertheless, I joined Mozy to help with something in which you might be interested–personal cloud storage. I talk a bit about it here: http://reverendted.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/my-next-gig-in-the-cloud-this-time-its-personal
Again, thanks for the clarification.
–Ted