Google Docs

Google docs and spreadsheets is a web-based productivity tool launched by google inc. as a "complementary" to desktop products, the Beta version was launched in march 2006 with the spreadsheets and in June , google docs was launched.
google docs & spreadsheets offer many interesting features and lack many others, assuming that Internet connection is available, files can be easily accessed whenever and wherever needed, modified right away, saved, even published, so it can be a good solution for users with high mobility.
it also provides the feature of sharing, the beta version can support up to 10 accounts modifying and using the same document. making it a good solution for work groups.
Security is another feature of google docs, all the files are stored in a "central" server , a relatively secure location and less prone to vandalism and such dangers

Along with advantages comes the disadvantages: the most obvious disadvantage is the lack of features, users that are "spoiled" with the features that MS office provides them, "me being one of them" find google docs features very basic and insufficient,
Dealing with privacy of content is another disadvantage , the same feature of security is the disadvantage of lack of privacy, storing the files away from the author in a central server will compromise the privacy of content and therefore users will be shunned from using this product for sensitive and Private content, in addition to that , users might feel uncomfortable to the idea of their files being stored away from them and prefer that they would reside "physically" closer to them
Add to that, the whole idea assumes that Internet access is always available, and that is not always true! many countries in the world don't have adequate and full access everywhere!

However , google docs/spreadsheets is only in it's Beta version, many features that are still not available and many features that will not be available, it's early to judge on the usability of this product, during my brief experience with this product , many bugs came and went, the stability fluctuated along the way! sometimes it even crashed my computer! typical of a beta version."right now the program works just fine! maybe because the google guys know I'm writing about them! who knows ?!!!"

the success of this product is based on many factors: increasing Internet access and make it available virtually everywhere, ensuring the total privacy and security of the content servers , and of course making the product more stable and offering more features. right now google docs might not be suitable for all types of users. in addition many users have already invested time and money on their existing word/spreadsheet applications so they'll provably resist the idea of switching to other products even if they are free! therefore another challenge that might face google is convincing the customers that their product is more stable and has more features.

However, as mentioned earlier, google docs is only a complimentary product, google officials claim that they're not trying to replace other established desktop products such as MS office but to give and alternative that might be useful in some cases. it shows google's increasing commitment towards a web based application products.

After all ; google docs is a good "light" solution when other products are not available, however the established , non web-based products are currently the better choice , even when most of them have performance and stability issues.