Google docs have revolutionized the way we work, and now it even functions as a tool for social sharing and political dissent. This is all because the world shifted from saving files locally to storing them in the cloud. But has Google docs made us too comfortable with life in the cloud?
Quartz Obsession podcast host Kira Bindrim and Quartz’s emerging industries reporter Scott Nover discuss how Google docs became a tool for collaboration, productivity, and even resistance.
Sponsored by Alumni Ventures
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Featuring
Kira Bindrim is the host of the Quartz Obsession podcast. She is an executive editor who works on global newsroom coverage and email products. She is obsessed with reading and reality TV.
Scott Nover is a reporter at Quartz covering the business of the internet. He is obsessed with TikTok, fantasy football, and The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.
Show notes
The Hottest Chat App For Teens Is… Google Docs (The Atlantic)
Zoolander (2001)—the files are in the computer
Google stops using Gmail content for advertising in 2017
I started the Media Men List (The Cut)
Hong Kongers crowdsourced a protest manual—and Myanmar’s already using it (Quartz)
How to make a digital will (Quartz membership)
On Microsoft & antitrust: ‘Crush Them’: An Oral History of the Lawsuit That Upended Silicon Valley (The Ringer)
Dec. 2021 Amazon Web Services outage
This episode uses the following sounds from freesound.org and Free Music Archive:
Keyboard Typing by katfolker
Notification Sound by thehorriblejoke
Sweet You by Loyalty Freak Music
Read the full transcript, or a lightly edited version.