Google is releasing Wednesday an update to Google Docs that upgrades comments and adds simple e-mail notifications by mentioning e-mail addresses in comments.
Google Docs already had basic commenting functions, but the new features make the collaboration experience more robust. Google last year added advanced collaboration tools to Docs, with a sidebar for discussing work on individual documents.
Comments now include timestamps and profile pictures. Google also added new editing features for individual comments, especially the ability to resolve comments. Rather than delete comments in an existing doc, users can remove them from visibility by resolving them. These comments are still accessible via the “discussions” button at the top of the document page.
The other interesting addition to comments is the implementation of e-mail notifications via @mentions. Just like the Twitter or Facebook @mention, users can now add others to a discussion just by @mentioning his or her e-mail address.
Say a person wants to bring a client into a document discussion. All she has to do is type something like “@ben@mashable.com Can you check this out and make sure you’re OK with the changes?” That person will receive an e-mail notification with the comment of the text. He can then add his own comments, either by commenting from the document or simply replying to the e-mail notification.
The addition of e-mail notifications via @mentions is a clever tactic by Google to bring more people into the Docs ecosystem. People who wouldn’t normally use Google Docs will be exposed to Google’s alternative to Microsoft Office. It also makes Google Docs an even better collaboration tool when a team needs to hammer out an important proposal from halfway across the world.
via mashable.com