Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2009/10/13/google_folder_sharing_rentokil/

Google Docs gets jiggy with folder sharing

Ratcatcher snares Gmail deployment

By Kelly Fiveash

Posted in Applications, 13th October 2009 12:06 GMT

Mountain View is finally rolling out a “shared folders” feature in Google Docs, after it first promised to add the option to its online app in July this year.

Google said it added the feature due to popular demand. Apparently it’s been the “most requested” option for users of the service.

The collaboration tool won’t show up immediately in everyone’s Google Docs, however. Instead, as is pretty standard with the arrival of new features in a Google app, the firm is rolling out the shared folders option gradually.

It said the feature “should be available to everyone soon”.

A user wanting others to see their documents in Google Docs can do so by putting them into a folder and then sharing it. Anyone requiring access to the contents would need to first be granted permissions to the shared folder.

This method makes life a lot easier when it comes to sharing several documents at once, as permissions can now be set at the folder, rather than file, level.

Additionally, Google has improved uploading items in the web app. Multiple files can now be added simultaneously with the company’s new upload page.

And also due to popular demand, Google has reinstated the “Items not in folders” feature.

Elsewhere on planet Google, the web kingpin has inked a deal with Rentokil Initial that will provide an email service to 35,000 of the ratcatcher firm’s staff.

The agreement is Google’s biggest Apps deployment to date. The pest control outfit told Reuters yesterday that it hoped the shift to cloud-based email would help save money and simplify its mail system.

"Today we have over 40 different systems which vary from open source systems to Microsoft Exchange to other complex arrangements, hosted both internally and externally," said Rentokil CIO Bryan Kinsella.

"We looked very carefully at rolling out server-based standard solutions and 15-18 months ago we looked at delivering the solution via the cloud." ®