I Was Wrong about Google Docs

By Dennis D. McDonald

I posted Painful Lessons Learned from Using Google Docs last week when I discovered a spreadsheet, a spreadsheet form questionnaire, and a series of documents missing. That post was a followup to a very positive earlier post, Lessons Learned from Using Google Docs.

I was wrong. I found the items I thought were lost and I’ve restored a link to the questionnaire on the top of the left column banner of this blog. (If you have a minute to spare, I’d appreciate your answering the 5 questions; click on the link under PLEASE TAKE MY ONE-MINUTE SURVEY to see the questions.)

What happened? It turns out that I have two Google accounts, one I use primarily for Google Analytics, the other for Google Docs. I don’t use Gmail. I didn’t realize that (a) I was using the Google Analytics account to access Google Docs when I started working on the documents and the survey questions and that (b) documents created on one account can’t be seen on another.

Live and learn. I apologize for the confusion.

How did I discover this? I had started researching my population of accounts and passwords since I had recently discovered that my Yahoo! email account may have been hacked and email addresses in that account’s address book were/are being spammed by someone using my email address as the source. (Yahoo! is looking into this as we speak).

What lessons were learned? Obviously, I need to do a better job of tracking and managing passwords. Thank goodness I wasn’t using the Google Docs service for a proposal or client deliverable at the time.

Another lesson learned is that using Google Docs as a free service has some disadvantages in user support. I couldn’t find an appropriate communication channel to discuss the issue. Also, posting questions on Google Groups’ Google Docs group can lead to delays in getting any response.

This seems to be the “price” of “free,” I guess. But I have resolved to be more careful in the future.

Copyright (c) 2008 by Dennis D. McDonald

Comments

[Andrew Meyer]

Dennis,

I'm interested if you're using Chrome and/or if you're using Gears to sync your docs onto a local disk drive?

This is something I'm experimenting with and would love to know your thoughts.

Andy

[Dennis D. McDonald]

I have used Gears with my MindMeister account but not with Chrome and Google Docs yet. It's on my list of "things to try when I get time."

Generally speaking I have a great deal of trust for remotely- or cloud-stored data but I am seeing the advantages of more frequent backups than I have been doing.

The last thing I want to worry about, though, is where something is actually physically stored -- is it in the cloud or on my machine? I remember having to deal with applications where data files were stored in local and remote sites and they can cause some real problems, like tripping when you've accidentally tied your shoelaces together. If Gears has actually solved that problem, that would be a really Good Thing.

Thanks for your comment!

Dennis

[Andrew Meyer]

Dennis,

thanks, I'm going to start playing with it as I think it will be critical to my business. I'll let you know, hopefully we can save some duplicated effort.

Andy

[Andrew Meyer]

Google Docs seems to be working well for me. You have to be online to create docs and then using chrome, it creates a web app with desktop icon that syncs the docs when you connect and you're back online.

Very easy step-by-step instructions provided here:
http://dev.chromium.org/for-testers/backend-testing/gears/gears--basic-testing

Give it a try. I've used it for about 5 days and it works pretty well.

Andy

[Dennis D. McDonald]

Thank you Andy I do intend to try it.
- Dennis