Despite being less than twenty years old, the company Google has made a huge impact in the developed world today. There are 31 billion searches on Google every month. In 2006 there was only 2.7 billion. The growth of Google in short space of time has been phenomenal. Though very few people realize the other benefits of Google beyond an apparently simple search through the internet.

This post is the first in a series of posts collating of useful tips on using Google in the classroom.

Google Docs

Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form, and data storage service offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users.

Documents can be saved to a user’s local computer in a variety of formats including: (ODF, HTML, PDF, RTF, Text, Microsoft Word). Documents are automatically saved to Google’s servers to prevent data loss, and a revision history is automatically kept. Documents can be tagged and archived for organizational purposes. The service is officially supported on recent versions of the Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Chrome browsers running on Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux operating systems. Documents can be shared, opened, and edited by multiple users at the same time.

To find out more about Google docs have a look at the two links on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/docs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRqUE6IHTEA