Does Google control the world?

Jeez Louise! Is there anything that can't be done from a person's Google account?

This was so totally and completely cool, I hardly know what to say. I thought I was very au courant with my little flash drive, carrying my files around with me, but honestly, it seems downright quaint compared to the Google Docs model. I don't have to worry about losing it, inadvertently sending it through the wash, or wreaking digital destruction when I forget to eject the little beast before removing it. Not that I've ever done that.

Always on the cutting edge, my cohort Frenzied Librarian has already started putting a few work documents on Google docs and inviting collaboration from the rest of us. I'm wondering how this compares with something like Basecamp for working collaboratively. I find Basecamp a little confusing, to be honest, and I'm not sure the same thing couldn't essentially be accomplished with Google Docs, but maybe I'm missing something wondrous about Basecamp.

When I was learning about Flickr, I felt vaguely uneasy about my photos being stored someplace other than my own hard drive. What if Flickr goes away, and I can't access my photos? Perhaps the more relevant question is, what if my hard drive crashes and I don't have everything properly backed up? Given the ominuous clicking, grinding and moaning sounds that sometimes emanate from my relatively ancient CPU, this is not an academic question. Not that I don't do regular and exhaustive backups. Daily even.

Besides just collaborating on projects, I now have a new way of helping patrons save documents that they are about to lose because their internet time is running out, instead of fumbling with the staff flash drive. Or giving patrons a documents option when they're using our express internet machines, which do not have Microsoft Office on them. Or making nifty display signs at my computer and printing them at the one computer networked to a color printer, without the clunkiness of emailing an attachment to myself, messing with the flash drive, or even inserting a floppy into the computer before remembering that there is no floppy drive behind that slot. Not that I've ever done any of those things.

I also think this would be an awesome way to do schedules and time off requests. Instead of our current piece of paper tacked to the staff bulletin board, we could have a document on which to make our schedule requests. We could update the master schedule in one place when someone trades or makes some other change, and all of our supervisors-in-charge would have access to the most up to date version of the schedule without us having to fax, email or otherwise communicate changes. We would avoid problems when someone forgets to fax the schedule to the supe-in-charge when she calls and asks for it, and fails to remember until the next day. Not that I've ever done that.

I've used Google Docs to share expense information with a certain ex-spouse, and find it a big improvement over the former system of emailing spreadsheet attachments and the multiple versions that process used to create. My only beef at this point is that I still have to email copies of receipts as attachments, since the files are too big for Google Docs.

Cool cool cool. What will those Googleites think of next?