Google Docs gets new interface and new competitor - LotusLive Symphony

February 01, 2011
Google Docs

Unlike the Google Wave team, nobody disturbs Google Docs developers, so they continue to add useful and not useful features to the suite. This time they changed the Google Docs interface in order to help users more easily manage lists of documents. They added a right pane with preview of the selected document and relevant information about it: history, versions and users who have access to it. The new Google Docs homepage now shows the most frequently used documents (an extension of the GMail Priority Inbox idea). The list of documents can be filtered by file type or you can show only images / videos (they are be displayed as thumbnails). For images the new slideshow-viewer has been added:

Google Docs

The most interesting new feature - Collections. Google has found a new way to decide the eternal dispute between fans of folders and tags - invented a new concept - "collections." Google Docs developers say that these collections combine the advantages of tags and folders. You can add a document to different collections and store collections hierarchically, just like folders ... So, instead of clear-for-all folders they have introduced absolutely unclear collections. After the reasonable initiative to bring Google Docs to familiar MS Office interface, this step looks very strange. Here is the old interface with folders:

Google Docs

While Google experimenting with the Docs interface, IBM has also decided to enter the online office market. The company has introduced the online version of its office suite Lotus Symphony, that will join the SaaS collaboration portal LotusLive. LotusLive Symphony will include word processor, spreadsheets, presentations, and provide real-time document collaboration features. It is expected that the service will become available in the second half of 2011.

So, very soon, enterprises will have a wide choice of online office suites:

- Google Docs

- Zoho Docs

- Microsoft Office Web Apps

- Oracle Cloud Office

- LotusLive Symphony

See also: