I've noticed recently that an increasing number of people have been sharing their thoughts in the form of articles or essays shared directly via Google Docs. These writers—almost certainly on average more young people, more women, more PoC, and more queer identifying people—are setting their documents to "anyone with URL" mode, then generating organic traffic through their existing social circles, like Facebook and Twitter.
Why did this happen
The answer to this question might seem, on the surface, extremely simple: students are used to writing on Google Docs and it's the locus of the majority of their scholarly pursuits. They're used to hitting the 'share' button, so copying that URL and driving traffic to the page happens naturally for them, as opposed to learning a new system as both a writer and a reader.
There are other subtleties to this platform in terms of tone, however: though Google is by no means politically neutral—nor is any publishing platform—these articles do not have a "feel" to them, as opposed to the type of writing that tends to happen on WordPress, Tumblr, or Medium. The more this trend grows, however, shared Google Docs could begin to "feel" a certain way; the reader may begin to anticipate a certain mindset or set of viewpoints if they do not already know the author and their work.
What this means for reading and authorship
Interestingly enough, Google Docs do not predominantly highlight the author as all other platforms tend to do: if you don't already know who wrote the work, and they haven't included their name in the body of the document, the reader must either seek it out or presume that the author is pesudo-anonymous. This could further the trend of pesudo-anonymity embraced by blogging culture of the 2000s.
Remarkably, however, most readers are not anonymous. Most readers will open a document while signed in to their Google account and show up as a viewer of the document, potentially revealing how far they have read by nature of the location of their cursor.
How institutions should leverage this
This sort of authorship should be encouraged. Institutional instructors, especially professors and librarians, should be sure to be versed in how Google Docs operates if part of their charge is to promote information literacy or scholarship.
How Google might leverage this
This could finally be Google's chance to break into social communications after many failed attempts. I would not be surprised to see Google begin to make subtle modifications to the service with this type of sharing in mind—I can easily see the inclusion of a 'share as article's button which creates a clean interface for potential readers.
Caveats for writers
With most publishing platforms, copyright information is predominantly displayed. If you are worried about other people passing around your text as their own, or even about who might be able to see your work, you might want to change your sharing settings or make the copyright status of your work explicit.
Though Google has a relatively good track record of leaving data visible, this data being "on the cloud" does mean that you don't have control over whether or not it disappears. Be especially careful of text shared from a university Google Apps account—will that article still be there when you graduate?
Others have also expressed concern over Google's handling of user data. If you read an article that mentions, say, a certain brand of fast food, would you be comfortable with that information being used to serve you ads? Are you comfortable with anyone or any algorithm having a list of the articles you've read?
Concluding thoughts
It's hard to say if shared Google Docs will continue to increase proportionally to all other pages on the web or will meet a plateau, but regardless, there are implications to this development that must be considered. Keep your eye out and notice every time you see a text being shared via Google Docs as a platform and encourage authorship and the open flow of information.
Update: I have been collecting examples of this phenomenon (albeit slowly) over at Pinboard, and I encourage you to do the same!