Privacy: It’s the current pet peeve of just about everyone about everything. People want things like MP’s expenses and government spending to be transparent while keeping their own information as secure as possible, or at least have the option to make it secure. Facebook has been under the spotlight of late over their privacy settings and brought in some new, almost satisfactory, new options to make your information more private.
Privacy and Sharing
Google Docs has followed suit with improved sharing and upgrades to its own security settings which seem pretty straight forward, as explained in these Google tutorial videos. The first is more comprehensive and is longer, while the second is basic and under a minute, but has a nicer voice.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POIR37Hmydg&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB5f1ZtG28k&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Basically, there are three settings. Amongst other updates for Google Docs on Google Docs Blog, here are the three privacy options explained:
- Private – Docs start out as private. When you first create a doc, you are the only person with access to it. From there, you can give access to other people.
- Anyone with the link – If you set your doc to “Anyone with the link,” it’s like an unlisted phone number. In the same way that anyone who knows an unlisted phone number can call it, anyone who knows the web address or URL of that doc can view it.
- Public on the web – Allows anyone the ability to find and access that particular doc on the web. For example, you could create a flyer for a concert, save it as a public doc and post a link to it on your blog. Public docs are automatically indexed by search engines like Google, so they may appear in search results as well.
Your default sharing options should be private so that you have to choose to share it with people or to make it public. Conveniently, when you make a document public it can appear in Google search results. So if you produce a new menu for your restaurant or directions to new business premises you can post them in Google Docs as a flyer so anyone can find them.
Competition
While Google Docs is now easier to use, this update hasn’t been a boost which takes it significantly ahead of any of its competitors, such as Office Web Apps. However, the main competitor for web apps and other data in the cloud, is in the minds of its users. People care more about their privacy when they hear stories almost daily about lost data, people stalking others on Facebook or even Google itself inadvertently capturing data. When people are absolutely sure that they can trust where they are storing their data they will surely utilise online apps more veraciously. Until then, keep on improving Google, cos when the day comes that web apps are as good as desktops apps, you may well be top dog.
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