How Docs & Spreadsheets grew at Google

Posted by: Ken Norton, Product Manager, Google Docs & Spreadsheets

When we first launched Docs & Spreadsheets last fall, we brainstormed different ways to drive awareness and adoption inside of Google. Should we hold a contest? Put up posters? But before we knew it, something interesting happened -- Googlers just started using it. They didn't need to be encouraged to reduce their email attachments. They didn't need to be told that having a single copy of their document would reduce confusion and allow access from any web browser. They didn't need a demo on how to import and export from traditional desktop applications. In sum, they didn't need us to tell them it would change the way they work together.

At Google, it's common to use our own products internally. In software industry parlance, we "eat our own dog food." (We like to think that Google products are tastier than kibble, but we'll leave that alone for now.) This is especially true for Google Apps. We use the same product as customers like Arizona State University and Prudential Preferred. As you can imagine, few tools in the corporate world are more important than email, calendar, instant messaging and document editing, so a vote of confidence from our co-workers means a lot. Since we use all of the Google Apps every day, we experience first hand what works and what doesn't, and we can apply that knowledge to making the products better.

Here are some statistics: 87% of Google employees worldwide used Docs & Spreadsheets in the past week and 96% have used it in the past month. Googlers have created and shared more than 370,000 documents and spreadsheets and they create more than 3,000 new ones each day. In fact, I wrote this blog post and shared it with colleagues using Docs & Spreadsheets just a few moments ago. If it works for us, it might just work for you too.