Google Docs to Add Support for Wikis

Google Spreadsheets has released a new version: 1.2.0i (even though you don't see them, every Google service has versions. In Google Spreadsheets you can actually see the current version in the bottom right corner of the window). The changes are mostly performance-related. They fixed some problems that caused some spreadsheets to not load or to not load fast enough. Google Spreadsheets added a new export format: txt for tab-separated values.

But the exciting things are yet to come in Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Google works for quite some time on adding charts to spreadsheets. After the JotSpot acquisition, the immediate results will be documents and spreadsheets editable by anyone. Here are some quotes from a JavaScript file that includes Google Docs messages like:

'Share with everyone:'
'Share with everyone at ' + ph0 + ':'
'Anyone can view this document at:'
'Anyone at ' + ph0 + ' can view this document at:'
'Allow anyone to edit'

As defined by JotSpot, "a wiki is a private website designed for collaboration. Unlike a traditional website where pages can only be read, in a wiki everyone can edit, update and append pages with new information, all without knowing HTML." The most well-known wiki is Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anyone can edit, but Wikipedia's rich-text editors are primitive.

It will be interesting to see if Google wikis will be available in community sites like orkut, Google Groups or even Blogger, and if Google tries to build its own knowledge wiki.