Hang out – live on air – with the Google Drive & Docs team

Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise blog.

Editor's note: Hangouts On Air are live video chats, interviews, or performances that are broadcast to Google+. We’ll host these broadcasts from time to time on the Google Enterprise Google+ page to give you the inside scoop on our business and products.

Last week, we hosted our first Hangout On Air from the Google Enterprise Google+ page with Jonathan Rochelle, Director of Product Management, Jeff Harris, Google Docs Product Manager, Teresa Wu, Google Docs Community Manager, and Eric Brunnett, Director of IT at Trump Hotel Collection.

During the conversation, Jonathan Rochelle told us the story of how Google Docs, Google Drive and cloud collaboration came to be. What was once an experiment to bring desktop software to the web is now a collaboration and productivity platform used by millions of people in their personal lives and at businesses, universities, non-profits and government agencies around the world.

Then, Eric Brunnett fielded questions about his company’s transition to Google Apps for Business and how they use shared Google documents and spreadsheets to streamline internal operations and communication. For example, they've moved away from relying on paper forms and long email chains by using Google Forms and Google Apps Scripts to create paperless processes that are more efficient and more trackable.

Last, Jeff Harris demoed some Google Drive features like shared folders and Google documents features like the research pane and contextual spell check, showing how the power of the web is used in Google Apps.



Follow the Google Enterprise and Google Docs Google+ pages to watch future Hangouts On Air and stay up-to-date on the latest news.

Posted by Julia Harter, Google Enterprise team

Our team's new Google+ Page

As our product and team have evolved over the past few years, we’ve enjoyed sharing news and notes with you on this blog. In turn, you’ve voiced your experiences with our products via blog comments, forum posts, tweets, and more. Hearing from you every day motivates us to build better products - that’s why we wanted to give you another more interactive place to join in on the conversation.

Starting today, we’re launching a new Google+ page dedicated to Google Docs. We’ll share info about feature launches, tips and tricks, behind the scenes snapshots, and more. You’ll have opportunities to Hangout with us, too.

We hope that our Google+ page will give you a fun new environment to share your feedback, learn about our products, and most importantly, connect with our team and our community of Docs users. Later today, I'll be doing our first of five Hangouts with members of the team - visit our page and add us to your circles to find out how you can participate.

Posted by: Teresa Wu, Community Manager

The Google Docs team beats the heat at our summer picnic

Hello from the Google Docs team! It's been a hot summer in many parts of the United States, so our New York based team escaped to Governor's Island for a refreshing afternoon of team bonding.





Wishing all of you a happy (and collaborative!) month of August -- wherever you are.



Posted by: Teresa Wu, Community Manager

Our team shares what’s next in Docs in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything”

Earlier this week, five members of our team held an “Ask Me Anything” Q&A on Reddit, a popular social news community. While we get to hear from you on the forums, Twitter, and our blog regularly, we thought it’d be fun to experiment with something different.

In the IAmA subcategory on Reddit, a poster starts a thread by saying “I am a...” before allowing Redditors to freely ask questions. After introducing ourselves -- product managers Scott Johnston, Jeff Harris, and Ronald Ho; engineer DJ Lee; and me, the community manager -- we gave users the green light to ask us anything.

Over the next six hours, Redditors posed questions about our product roadmap, the challenges we’d encountered during development, and even our breakfast food preferences. We also gave users a sneak peek into the things we’re currently working on, including Cloudprint, presentations, and the mobile experience.

Having an AMA was a unique opportunity for us to hear from the community, and we were delighted by the stories, witty comments, and declarations of love that Redditors shared with us.

We announced this Reddit AMA on Monday via our @GoogleDocs Twitter account -- if you’re interested in participating in a community event like this in the future, be sure to follow us on Twitter.

Posted by: Teresa Wu, Community Manager