By Leroy McLean, STAR Writer

Google has become the biggest internet rising star. This company continues to deliver new products and services each day. In several of my articles I talked about the things presently being done by this powerful internet company, and just when I thought they were cooling down, they hit me in the face with yet another surprise.

new offerings

Since the start of the year Google has been testing (in beta) two new offerings with the general public. These two new products are very interesting to any individual who wants new online experience. The products are Google Word Processor and Spreadsheet. These products are available online and run inside your compatible browsers.

Here's what you can do with documents:

"Upload Word documents, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or text (or create documents from scratch).

"Use our simple WYSIWYG editor to format your documents, spell-check them, etc.

"Invite others (by email address) to edit or view your documents and spreadsheets .

"Edit documents online with whomever you choose.

"View your documents' revision history and roll back to any version.

"Publish documents and spreadsheets online to the world, as web pages or post documents to your blog.

"Download documents to your desktop as Word, OpenOffice, RTF, PDF, HTML or zip.

Here's what you can do with spreadsheets:

"Import and export .xls, .csv, and .ods formatted data (and export functionality for .pdf and .html).

"Enjoy intuitive navigation and editing, like any traditional document or spreadsheet.

easy editing

"Use formatting and formula editing in spreadsheets so you can calculate results and make your data look the way you want it.

"Chat in real time with others who are editing your spreadsheet.

Now if you are on the run and don't have access to a computer that is running a word processor or spreadsheet application, then you can just open your browser and point to Google online. There you will enjoy some powerful features from these new products.

Send your comments or suggestions to thestartech@yahoo.com. You can also write to StarTech c/o The Gleaner Company, 7 North Street, Kingston.