Google Docs gets Discussions plug-in

Google is rolling out a new feature for its web-based Docs word processing application, designed to increase productivity by easing collaboration between employees.

Discussions in Google Docs allows users to comment within documents in real time, while working on projects.

The feature is integrated into the Docs and Gmail clients, allowing users to participate in conversations using mobile devices. Each comment has a profile picture and a time stamp and users can add colleagues into the thread using @mentions, said Matthew Glotzbach, product management director for Google enterprise.

"The user experience is very simple, it is a linear flow. You click on the comment in the document and see the discussion on the right," he explained.

"[The feature] is a perfect illustration of the model that 100 per cent web can achieve. You can't accomplish this on the desktop. This isn't possible when you've got multiple copies of different legacy files sitting around on individual PCs."

Glotzbach also touted the importance of the resolve feature, which allows users to hide comments once they have been addressed, without having to delete them.

Users can have multiple discussions about one paragraph and then clicking the resolve feature hides these from the interface, but the resolve feature also allows comments to be reopened if someone needs to gain context about the discussion, he said.

Discussions in Google Docs is remarkably similar to the collaboration feature that will be present in IBM's cloud-based LotusLive Symphony platform, when it launches later this year.

The feature is the latest in a raft of additions to the Google Apps platform, which continues to attract enterprises. Google confirmed that there are now three million businesses using the service.

Uptake of the platform in EMEA has been particularly high, and there are now one million businesses signed up to Google Apps, Robert Whiteside, head of Google enterprise in UK and Ireland revealed today.

There are 3,000 business customers signing up each day, ranging from small start-ups using the free service to large enterprises signing up to the £33 per user per year service.