14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has taken user feedback into account not only to kick up a notch the Cloud components of Office 2010, but also an offering based on Office Web Apps tailored to the Facebook social network. Earlier this week, the Redmond company introduced an upgrade to Office Web Apps, and also updated Docs.com with new features, making it easier for Facebook users to discover, create and share documents with friends.
Developed by Microsoft FUSE Labs, Docs.com continues to be in Beta stage at this point in time, but Pat Kinsel, working at Microsoft FUSE Labs on Docs.com, made it clear that the Redmond company is paying close attention to tester feedback.
In fact, it was input from early adopters that catalyzed some of the changes delivered to Docs.com, namely enhancements to usability and discoverability of docs.
“As the fall approaches, many of your workloads will increase. With this is mind, we’ve continued to push Docs forward,” Kinsel explained.
“In particular, we’ve addressed two key shortcomings: the inability to organize your own docs and difficulties discovering other docs.”
Following the refresh introduced this week, Facebook users can now tag documents with specific keywords. “As a result, you can then sift through your own docs to find exactly what you’re looking for,” Kinsel added.
Tags are also a welcomed addition to documents when it comes down to discovering items authored an shared by other Facebook users.
With the new tags, customers are able to focus only on docs that have a specific subject in common. “Or, when viewing your own docs, you can discover other docs about the same subject,” Kinsel added.
At the same time, search is a key component driving discoverability. And in Docs.com, Microsoft has made it possible for users to search for content not only by people, but also by pages and tags.
The Redmond company worked to make searching on Docs.com similar to the Facebook search, after all, this particular version of Office Web Apps is designed for the social network.
“If you’re looking for docs authored by a specific friend or Facebook page, simply type the name and select the correct suggestion. If you’re looking for docs about a specific subject, type the subject and select the appropriate tag. This will show you all docs tagged with that subject,” Kinsel said.
In addition to search capabilities, filtering and sorting functionality is also at the core of discoverability. “No matter what list of docs you’re viewing, you can now sort by date, title and file type. Or, you can filter by criteria such as owner and tag,” Kinsel explained.