14 DAY TRIAL // The big news for Google right now has to do with Chrome and the Web Store, but these big launches are dragging other Google products with them. The Google Docs team, for example, is announcing that the office and collaboration suite is now available in the Web Store, no big surprise since it's been one of the bundled apps ever since Chrome got support for web applications. The interesting part, though, is that Docs will, once again, get offline support in the short term future.
"The Chrome Web Store was announced at the Chrome event in San Francisco today, giving Chrome users an easy way to discover a broad range of amazing web apps," Jonathan Rochelle, Group Product Manager at Google, wrote.
"You can install our Google Docs web app by clicking Install on our store landing page. This will add a handy shortcut to your favorite web productivity app," he said.
Google Docs has been one of the default apps bundled with Chrome, along with Gmail and other Google apps, for the adventurous users which enabled support for the technology before it was fully baked and before the Web Store went live.
So it makes sense that it's part of the Web Store. But, right now, installing the Docs app doesn't really do anything more than placing a shortcut in the New Tab Page.
Soon enough though, having Docs installed means that you will be able to continue to work on your documents and spreadsheets even if you're not connected to the internet.
"In addition, at the event today, we were excited to demonstrate a feature that we expect to deliver early in 2011 -- the return of offline support for Google Docs. For those who used offline, we are bringing back the much improved feature by taking advantage of advancements in modern browser technology like HTML5," Rochelle announced.
Google Docs had offline support in the past, with the help of Google's now deprecated Gears technology. Once the new batch of Docs editors were introduced though, offline access was gone.
Now that HTML5 technologies are a bit more mature, the killer feature is making a comeback, though you'll still have to wait until next year for it.