We're five members of the Google Docs team - ask us anything
1–10 of 25 posts
Re: We're five members of the Google Docs team - ask us anything
#2Why didn't anyone ask any questions?
Re: We're five members of the Google Docs team - ask us anything
#3I'm really glad that companies, developers, etc. are using reddit as a platform for discussion. The user base has some smart folks in it, and the commenting system is fantastic for holding large intelligible discussions.
For instance, in the submission for Facebook's development on the Android application, there was an entire thread with devices affected by a specific bug.
Google seems to use reddit's commenting system far better than their own "Google Moderator" (http://www.google.com/moderator/#16/e=7f3 p.s. does anyone know if any of these 3K+ questions were ever answered anywhere?)
Re: We're five members of the Google Docs team - ask us anything
#4Why didn't anyone ask any questions?
I asked a question (and got it answered :D), and saw lots of other questions in there. Were you expecting a bigger turnout?
Re: We're five members of the Google Docs team - ask us anything
#5We're five members of a sub-team of a sub-team of a large corporation whose recent products are used solely due to the critical mass of users built around the previous generation of our company's developers' products.
Herein we will pay lip service to a barely innovative also-ran office product that happens to use a lot of complex JavaScript (which is fashionable), answering any questions posed with vague responses whose only substance is an alignment with our corporate goals. In truth we've probably spent the best years of our lives fixing bugs relating to the pixel-perfect positioning of the buttons in a particular form in the application.
Our motivation for writing this IAmA is most likely to convince ourselves that despite our cog-like position in a massive corporation wherein our only career path is sideways or into middle management, our jobs and lives have some semblance of meaning, and have created significant value for the planet. If upper level management approved our IAmA, they did so only for the goodwill and free PR that may result from it.
In truth, we are but 5 representatives of a company whose massive weight is being used to shape the future of the industry in ways favorable only to itself and its stockholders, and deeply unfavorable to small, independently controlled companies. Its recruitment drive has been turned so high in recent years that the mere name-dropping of "Google" is unlikely to mean much with regard to our individual skill-sets. We are mediocre developers with limited vision, working for a company that chooses our direction for us. --
I'm sorry for being so negative, but honestly there is almost nothing of value to be derived from these kinds of posts, it's not like these guys are authorized to tell us anything of substance with regard to future product plans. Guaranteed 90% of the comments are feature requests and self-congratulatory nonsense.
Re: We're five members of the Google Docs team - ask us anything
#6Re: We're five members of the Google Docs team - ask us anything
#7We're five members of a sub-team of a sub-team of a large corporation whose recent products are used solely due to the critical mass of users built around the previous generation of our company's developers' products. Herein we will pay lip service to a barely innovative also-ran office product that happens to use a lot of complex JavaScript (which is fashionable), answering any questions posed with vague responses w…
What (information) could members provide without interfering with higher goals?
Information is stuck in cog-like positions which teams revolve around, so how can we reprogram?
Re: We're five members of the Google Docs team - ask us anything
#8We're five members of a sub-team of a sub-team of a large corporation whose recent products are used solely due to the critical mass of users built around the previous generation of our company's developers' products. Herein we will pay lip service to a barely innovative also-ran office product that happens to use a lot of complex JavaScript (which is fashionable), answering any questions posed with vague responses w…
Based on what I read from the thread, it's more the case that the Docs team is using it to get the pulse of what people want from Google Docs, than necessarily promoting anything. (Or even directly answering certain questions.)
The top questions right now are on offline, security of Docs, outlook for mobile app, formatting problems, only some of which I'm personally concerned about. So I'm hopeful reddit feedback works its way into prioritization and product plans.
Re: We're five members of the Google Docs team - ask us anything
#9We're five members of a sub-team of a sub-team of a large corporation whose recent products are used solely due to the critical mass of users built around the previous generation of our company's developers' products. Herein we will pay lip service to a barely innovative also-ran office product that happens to use a lot of complex JavaScript (which is fashionable), answering any questions posed with vague responses w…
Wow. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.
If you bothered to actually look through some of the thread, it's actually a pretty nice read. A good chunk of upcoming features and design decisions were revealed, they took note of a number of feature requests, and some nice personal questions were answered as well, putting a nice human face on some of the invisible hands working on one of the world's largest online office suites.
Re: We're five members of the Google Docs team - ask us anything
#10Probably the most important note to come out of this AMA: Offline Google Docs is coming back later this summer. Offline apps in general is really going to put a nice jump-start in the newly produced line of Chromebooks.