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Google Docs Spreadsheet Editing Comes to the iPhone

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When Google Docs mobile was launched last year, I was pretty much excited to try it out using my iPhone. Unfortunately, the service didn’t have too much to offer since it was a browse-only service. I stopped using it since then. Perhaps realizing the shortcomings of its mobile Google Docs service, Google has finally introduced some sort of “editing” features to Google Docs, but only for spreadsheets.

Actually the new feature was the addition of a List View which facilitates viewing, editing, sorting, and filtering of your spreadsheets on your iPhone and other supported mobile devices including the G1 Android Phone, iPod devices and Nokia S60 devices.

This is certainly a nice feature especially if you are sharing and collaborating on spreadsheet files. Now, you can easily edit a spreadsheet file anywhere you are, using your mobile phone. Even better is the fact that your friend or colleague who are sitting in front of their PCs at home or in the office will immediately see the edits you’ve made.

Hopefully, we get the same feature on Google document files as well.

2007: The Year of Social Networking

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An article at PC World does a great job of summarizing the major developments in social networking space in 2007 and ponders over the prospects and uncertainties for 2008.

One insightful point mentioned in the article is how innovation at start-ups startles tech giants. Google, the great Web firm that one-upped Yahoo in claiming the search crown and hailed as the poster child of innovation was beaten at the social networking front. All the major internet firms such as Yahoo, Google and MS were done in by FaceBook which sort of perfected the concept of applications around social networks.

Social Networking is moving from the domain of an ‘nice add-on’ feature to a must-have even at the enterprise level. Various organizations are now waking up to the possibility that to attract the next generation of talent, it is essential to incorporate the flavor of social networking and connectivity within the enterprise.

While there were major salvos fired at FaceBook’s walled garden approach to social networking apps (which it did counter by licensing the F8 platform), it will be LinkedIn’s progress in the API space that will be really interesting. Being a site for business networking, it is one network that will really see a boost with professional networking going beyond just the website to the Web as such.

But another shift that can also be expected is the increased availability of affordable feature-rich mobile phones and compelling mobile applications. Apart from the enterprise user, the benefits of mobile applications have not really trickled down to the casual user. 2008 will hopefully be the year when mobile applications especially for social networking will really take off. Since Google has made several bold moves in the mobile space, expect a lot of innovation in this front.

Overall, its been a great year for Social Networking and for 2008 there’s a lot to anticipate.

Google and Its Doodles

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Google’s got a way of keeping its users uptodate with latest on content. And that extends right from the most compelling links to the very doodles that appear on the home page. The Doodles (the Google logo) have a very interesting history in themselves – having been produced for the first time in 1999 by Sergey and Larry themselves after they attended the Burning Man Festival.

And the oodles have gone all the way from the commemoration of Louis Braille’s birthday to the once-every-122-years Transit of Venus. And the man behind the Google Doodle, Dennis Hwang does the doodles only as a small part of his job as Google’s International Webmaster.

You could also go ahead and send in details on any event that you feel needs to be reflected on the Google home page.

And if you’ve noticed recently, Google’s present doodles are ‘in-the-making’ holiday doodles. Click on the image and you are led to a page with a set of holiday images and quizzed on what to expect next.

Another first from Google I think, doodles for a doodle in the making. Its the face of the company to the world and it reflects the real-time dynamism that has made it the powerhouse of the Web.