14 DAY TRIAL // A few days ago, Google released what seems to be one of the most expected features ever issued by the Mountain View-based company: offline support for Google Docs. This means that Google Docs, that powerful document editing technology available for free for all Google-registered members, is now accessible even without an Internet connection. This obviously makes us think that Microsoft Office, a solution which has always been the leader of office suites, may now have a serious rival for the supremacy of the market. However, there's still a lot of work to do to make Google Docs a powerful product in offline mode, but this is only the beginning.
As you may guess, Google Docs can work in offline mode thanks to Google Gears, a special technology introduced by Google which is currently implemented in several solutions such as Google Reader and Google Calendar.
However, the offline flavor of Google Docs may be a pretty nice addition to your desktop applications because everything you create/edit in offline mode is then uploaded into your Google account as soon as an Internet connection is detected. No need to select the files manually, the synchronization is done automatically without too many clicks.
"It's all pretty seamless: I don't have to remember to save my documents locally before packing my laptop for a trip. I don't have to remember to save my changes as soon as I get back online. And I don't have to switch applications based on network connectivity. With the extra peace of mind, I can more fully rely on this tool for my important documents," Philip Tucker, Software Engineer, Google Docs, explained on the official Google Docs blog.
The function is now available for a limited number of users, but the company promises it will be introduced in all accounts in the next few weeks.