Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office

We mentioned back in March 2010 that Google had acquired DocVerse and have been eagerly awaiting the product release.  It's finally here and wow did Google deliver!  They brought simultaneous document editing to Office 2003, 2007, and 2010.  There is no need to purchase an Office 2010 upgrade and setup a Sharepoint server or Skydrive to gain the Microsoft equivalent of this feature.

What is simultaneous editing?  It means that multiple people can edit the exact same document at the exact same time and automatically see the other person's changes.  With simultaneous editing you can work on different slides of a single Powerpoint presentaton file at the same time or update meeting minutes in a single Microsoft Word file at the same time.

By the way, simultaneous editing has been available with native Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, and Google Presentations for years now.   It makes collaborating on documents and presentations a breeze.

I tested Google Cloud Connect by opening an existing Microsoft Word document in Office 2010 on one computer and synched it with Google Cloud Connect.  I then downloaded from Google Docs and opened it with another computer running Office 2007.  When I changed lines of text on either computer and clicked the save button, within seconds the other computer would refresh and show the same change.  Incredible functionality and I think that explains why it took almost 1 year from acquisition to release the product.

For more details and a video overview check out Google's official blog posting and Google Docs Help