IT and Society: Google upgrades Google Docs

Google has announced the upcoming upgrade of its Google Docs that is aimed at work with text files. New options make Docs not merely online word processor, but a fully-fledged online file repository.

At the very beginning Google Docs enabled to store only text files to be edited, but later Google allowed Net-surfers to upload any file to Google Docs.

However the company claims that with more files and variety of file types in one place, it becomes more difficult to organize and find what you need quickly. Google has added new filters for sorting files, and it has added what it calls "priority sorting", which enables to put user’s most relevant files at the top of the list.  

The company also offers a new default file category known as Home, where user can actually use his own judgment to decide which files are most important to him. Google now offers what it calls file "collections", meant to combine the folder metaphor with the "labels", for example sort photographs according to place and time they were taken. For its collections Google has unveiled a special interface similar to that of off-line cataloguers.