A recent update to Google Drive aims to make online collaboration with Google Docs even better. This time Google has incorporated features of Google Plus and Chat directly into Docs.

The first new feature is Google Plus hovercards for shared Docs. Whenever you open up a shared Doc and another collaborator is viewing at the same time, you’ll be able to pull up their profile picture and other basic information.

The update also includes Google Chat directly into the Doc. This allows for real-time collaboration for all contributors to a Doc. This is definitely an improvement over the traditional commenting system, which will obviously remain so you can reference specific portions of a Doc.

Finally, Google has replaced the generic ‘anonymous user’ identifier with some fun new animal avatars. Let us know what your favorites are!

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