How Google Docs is green

Conservation is a good thing. If you don't believe this, close the browser immediately.
In my need to be more green, I quit using paper around the time I finished studying. I tried to email everything that otherwise would get printed, used Notepad to make rough notes, used my PDA's drawing tool to make sketches of ideas and managed to get through without using much stationery.

Now giving up stationery is easy. But as a geek, not buying the latest computer is hard. My computer ran ok. It was too slow for my liking and the wide screen glossy models would call out to me everytime I crossed a computer shop. Some manufacturers have to add an 8% tax on the price of an electronic item because they cannot be recycled and lead to e-waste. Physically this electronic waste adds up to so much junk that would be better off filling landfills. But instead, they circulate back into our lives through the air and water because some unknowing lad in a shanty is boiling the plastic to get to the copper wiring and ends up with lead fumes from the paint lining his lungs.

So I thought about what I could do about the one slow computer, one broken computer and one out of date PDA. I installed ubuntu on the slow one, use the broken one as a stand-by because it has lots of licensed marketing software and the PDA is linked to my wi-fi so I don't have to boot everytime I need to check mail.

Which is when I started thinking about the non-immediate e-trash that will soon start clogging our unlimited mailboxes. I got Gmail in 2005 and I've already used up 22% and I delete unnecessary emails. So considering I will want to be checking email for the rest of my life, I am running out of space. Yes, Google says the space is increasing, but the rate sure is slowing down. One day Deepak asked me why I prefer Googleware to normal software...why do I have to type out a word document on Google docs or maintain an online notebook on Google Notebook. But it is not just a Google fetish. It just seems clean. There is just ONE copy of that document. Imagine mailing myself the notebook everyday before leaving for work and updating it. That would be outdated even for folks who still use My Briefcase. That one copy stays and changes on a need basis and even though formatting is a clown, it serves some basic purpose. It is almost like the choked arteries of the internet are getting cleared. Soon there is going to be a need to reduce creating trash in the online world and Google is leading the way.

Even with Google Wave, everything is under one tab. Yes, it leads to more communication, but they are building responsible and efficient systems around communication.