Google Tests Cloudboard, a Web-Based Clipboard Replacement

Google is apparently testing a new service called Cloudboard, which aims to replace desktop clipboard in certain instances and allow users to copy data from one Google product to another, for example from Gmail to Docs. The product hasn't been publicly revealed yet but internal data suggest that Cloudboard is already being tested, as the Google Operating System blog found.

The product was referenced in an internal feedback form which has now been removed but you can still see its name, “Cloudboard feedback.” The form was presumably used to get the opinions of the Google employees testing the product. In the document Google also provides several example uses for the new product, like porting a spreadsheet table from Google Spreadsheets (Trix) to Google Docs (Writely). "If you copy a formatted cell range in Trix (cell border, colors, etc.) and then paste into Writely, it's transformed into a comparably-styled HTML table," the form read.

The internal document listed several other possible uses showing that the product will be enabled across most if not all of Google's online services. For example, users can copy photos from Picasa, videos from YouTube, move spreadsheets from Google Spreadsheets to Gmail and so on. The interesting part though, without which the product would be pretty much redundant, is the possibility to convert the data from one format to another ensuring that it looks the same across the different services.

There are alternatives to this feature, at least for some of the functionality, and most operating systems do offer an advanced clipboard for just this kind of things. But if you use your desktop's advanced clipboard often then this tool could really prove useful and the close integration with Google products can't be matched by the desktop apps. Google in fact offered a product that could be used somewhat in the same way before, Google Notebook, but the company stopped development on it earlier this year. Notebook is still available but there will be no new features or any kind of work on it.