Google Docs is a free web-based office suite offered by Google within its Google Drive service. It also was a storage service but has since been replaced by Google Drive ^[3] It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users. Google Docs combines the features of Writely and Spreadsheets with a presentation programincorporating technology designed by Tonic Systems. Data storage of files up to 1 GB total in size was introduced on January 13, 2010, but has since been increased to 10 GB, documents using Google Docs native formats do not count towards this quota.^[4] The largely anticipated cloud storage feature by Google is said to be replacing most of Docs' features in 2012.^[5] This extension and replacement of Google Docs called Google Drive was opened to the public on April 24, 2012.

Google Docs originated from two separate products, Writely and Google Spreadsheets. Writely was a web-based word processor created by the software company Upstartle and launched in August 2005.^[6] Spreadsheets, launched as Google Labs Spreadsheets on June 6, 2006,^[7] originated from the acquisition of the XL2Web product by 2Web Technologies. Writely's original features included a collaborative text editing suite and access controls. Menus, keyboard shortcuts, and dialog boxes are similar to what users may expect in a desktop word processor such as Microsoft Word orLibreOffice Writer.

On March 9, 2006, Google announced that it had acquired Upstartle.^[8] At the time of acquisition, Upstartle had four employees.^[9] Writely closed registration to its service until the move to Google servers was complete.^[8] In August 2006, Writely sent account invitations to everyone who had requested to be placed on a waiting list, and then became public