Google reveals plans for 2008

Typically, Google representatives keep their mouths shut for future releases of their products. However, they have recently been quite surprised to open up future plans for Google Apps . Blogger Andrew Miller made some interesting notes from the presentation of Google employee Scott Johnston, former vice president of development at Jotspot, a wiki-startup before acquiring it about a year ago.

First of all, the next stage of development of Google Page Creator called Google Sites will be launched in 2008. Google Sites will be based on Jotspot collaboration tools and allow users to create, for example, internal and external corporate sites, sites for project management, etc.
Also in the near future we can expect that Google Docs, Gmail and Calendar will start working offline via Google Gears. Of course, this was predicted by many, but it is good to hear it from the representatives of Google. Note that Zoho, a competitor of Google Docs, has long received offline functionality in conjunction with Google Gears.

The following points are rather dubious, but worth reading:

When simultaneously editing a document by one user offline and another online, what happens to the document? The same algorithm that is used when editing online at the same time will also be used when merging a document from an offline version. Changes will be available as versions in chronological order.
Will Google Docs get OCR features for importing pdf documents and image files? Not yet, but with time it is quite possible. Scott did not comment on roadmap for future improvements. However, the Google Sites collaboration tool will allow you to download and store files of any type.
Will GrandCentral (one of Google’s high-profile purchases this year - ponomar ) be integrated into Google Apps? Scott declined to give a timeline, but noted that work on this is underway, and this is a task of "paramount importance."
Will Google Spreadsheets ever support advanced features such as pivot tables and macros, or integration with offline databases? Scott replied that they are constantly looking for a compromise between speed and functionality. Google Spreadsheets will never become a complex analytical program, because then it will become too complicated and cumbersome for the average user.
Will Google Apps support video conferencing in addition to GTalk and Gmail chat? Scott replied "Not yet." Although with all his appearance he showed that someday it would be realized, nothing more was said.