The Desktop Moves Online
Most of us remember the days when any purchase of a new computer meant re-installing our productivity software - email, word processing, spreadsheet software, etc - and then transferring all of our old files to the new computer. In fact, many of us still behave that way now.
But there is another way. No, I didn't say a better way....for some it may be better but others may feel more comfortable with the older model for now. The new, Web 2.0, way is to move desktop applications and the files they produce to the web.
Advantages of this are pretty clear. You can access your files from any internet connected computer. Traveling to Europe for the summer? No problem....sit down at any internet cafe and instantly have access to all your email, photos and word processing files. Regularly have need to work on two or more different computers? No need to worry about keeping synced copies of all files on all machines, just access everything from the web. Need to share your files with others? Hey, that's what Web 2.0 is all about.
So if this is so wonderful, why aren't we all doing it? Well, for one thing some of these applications are pretty new still, and not as full featured as their desktop counterparts. You have no access to your files when you are not connected to the internet. And some people are still concerned about privacy issues and continued access to files when everything is stored on a third party site, especially one that is providing the service for free.
Google has been buying up many of the early entries in the online desktop application arena. This is either a good thing - one Google account gets you access to web-based email, calendaring, word processing, spreadsheets, photo management and more - or a bad thing, depending on your attitude towards Google. But given the range of applications Google offers, we are going to use it for this week's exercises.
Exercise 1: Create a Google account and explore some of the applications Google has online. Start at https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount and click Create an Account Now. Once you have your Google Account you'll be able to use Gmail, Google Documents and Spreadsheets, Calendar and more. Note: If you already created a Google account to use Google Reader or for any other Google service, you should be able to begin exploring other Google applications right away without the need to create a new account.
Exercise 2: Use Google Documents & Spreadsheets to share a word processing or spreadsheet file with a co-worker. See Google's Help page on Collaborating and Publishing for details on how to share your documents.
Exercise 3: Write a blog entry about using web-based desktop applications. Is this something you think you'll do more of now? Does this model work better for some applications than others? Is there a reason why you'd prefer to stay with the model where applications and files are stored on your computer?