Thing #18

Google Docs is a very cool "thing" that I had never heard of before this class. Several people in this class had mentioned Google Docs so I was excited to see that I go to explore it in my 23 things. I think there are numerous advantages to having this type of program. For one, you would almost always have access to your documents. Gone are the days of emailing things to yourself so you would have something you worked on at home when you got to school or work. Also, gone are the days of driving back home in a frenzy because you forgot your flash drive. I also like how you can upload existing documents in there and work with them. Sharing your documents is super easy, and you have many options to do so with. You can get a "link" to share, you can invite people to see your documents, you can email your documents out, or you can publish your document as a web page. And all of this is right at your fingertips.

I can see just a few disadvantages to using an online, free tool like Google Docs. First, I am not sure about the security of your documents. Ideally, you have to sign in and others also would have to be able to sign in to your account to get your documents, but I don't think I would put any personal or important information out there because it just seems like if it's out there, someone can access it. Also, another disadvantage I see is that even when you share your document with someone else, they will need a Google account in order to view it. This is a minor disadvantage because most people either already have a Google account, or wouldn't mind getting one, but this could pose problems.