Rick Klau of Google recently mentioned a relatively unused feature of Google Docs called Docs Forms. I wanted to mention it in case you haven’t come across it yet. Docs Forms is a feature of Google Docs that allows bloggers to embed forms into their blog articles or web pages. And that includes all blogging platforms (not just google’s blogspot). Basically, these forms can be embedded into any html that supports IFRAMES.
This easy-to-use form-creator opens a huge potential to bloggers that might not have used forms in the past (e.g. me). The list of applications includes surveys, polls, contest submissions, contact pages and so on.
For me, Blogs + Forms allows a higher level of interaction with readers than I had compared to this time last week. And that is an exciting prospect. If you care, you can see how I’m using a form right now on my “Mail Me” page.
Caveat:
There is one thing I worry about though. Blog polls are notorious for producing untrustworthy data. It’s the nature of a self-selected sample population.
For example, I bet Paul Randal’s survey takers, are a bit savvier than average so his blog survey results have to be taken with a grain of salt. In other words, I bet the who’s-Paul-Randal? crowd have a lot of people in common with the No-disaster-recover-plan crowd and they might be under-represented in such surveys.
Example
And what would this blog post be without an example. So without further ado, give the feature a spin:
Wow, that’s cool!
Hmmm… Now I’ll have to think of something to collect survey data on… but it won’t be about hair.
(BTW, thanks for not adding a “Very Brad Schulz” to your list of options).
–Brad
Comment by Brad Schulz — January 27, 2010 @ 2:15 pm