There was no razzle-dazzle Las Vegas launch, no surprise announcement in San Francisco. But last week Google, the world’s fastest-growing internet group, launched the latest phase of a concept that may have a bigger effect on computing and the mobile phone than Microsoft’s new Vista operating system and Apple’s iPhone.

“Cloud computing” breaks the bonds that tie us to our desks, our PCs and laptops, and gives us the ability to access and work on files any time, anywhere, in the diffuse atmosphere of cyberspace. Instead of having a whirring machine packed with software programs and a hard drive on which data is stored, the web itself turns into your computer. Applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, calendars, contacts and email can be accessed, with data stored securely on remote servers.

The concept is not new — Hotmail was one of the first ventures to show the benefits of having information “out there” — and companies including Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo! have flirted with web word processing, but Google has taken a huge step into the future by combining the most used applications in a one-stop shop.

What are the advantages? There is no need to spend £200 on a shrink-wrapped box of new software that takes the rest of the day to set up on your PC. The service is free to anyone with broadband internet who opens a Gmail account (Google’s webmail service, similar to Hotmail) which until last week was available only by recommendation from a friend.

Because the software programs operate online, files can be worked on by as many people as choose to share access. They can view each other’s edits and see all previous versions of a document. There is no need to back up work because it is saved every few minutes on the servers. Storage is free for regular users, but those who want to store thousands of large files, such as very high-resolution images in Picasa photo galleries, will pay a small fee.

Travellers will welcome the flexibility of cloud computing. You don’t need to own the hardware any more, or take a laptop on a business trip. Go to an overseas branch of an office or an internet cafe, go online, enter your user name and password and your personalised homepage will appear with all your email, contacts, text documents, spreadsheets and photographs. Google plans to introduce mobile phone-based access to all such applications soon.

That, at least, is the theory, but does it work in practice? For the past few months I’ve been trying cloud computing on the move. Computer geeks like to say that, with every successful new technology, there is a “wow moment” when the techno-penny drops and a newcomer becomes a convert. Mine came at 11.53pm on Friday December 15. I was in a hotel in Hong Kong writing a feature for The Sunday Times when my IBM ThinkPad finally gave out after one foreign assignment too many.

A computer crash is bad enough at the best of times. On deadline, abroad, late at night, it is a journalist’s nightmare. But this time it was little more than a temporary inconvenience. I headed to the nearest 24-hour internet cafe, near the Kowloon Star ferry terminal, logged on and within minutes my story, all the telephone numbers of the contacts I needed and even my appointments for the next day were on the screen in front of me. Apart from my surroundings, nothing had changed. I filed my story on time.

So far, so Web 2.0. But how good are the software packages? They perform well enough for personal use but large businesses will require more storage space than Google is offering.

Docs, the word processing package now released in UK English, is simple but effective. It has an easy-to-navigate toolbar for choosing fonts and you can give files a name and multiple labels to make them easy to find. You can search every file for keywords or phrases. Files can be saved in all major formats and sent as Gmail attachments.

The spreadsheets seem as good as Excel or Lotus 1-2-3, with the usual automatic addition functions. The shared calendar is particularly good for groups, such as families or businesses, because everyone can see what the others are doing and when.

The new Gmail-friendly mobile phones can be configured for “push” Gmail, which arrives at the phone all the time, or “pull” email, for people who prefer to log on periodically to check their inbox.

Cloud computing is not without frustration. It is, of course, subject to the vagaries of the net: service is only as good and as fast as your internet connection, and no service at all means work stops. Transferring files created by nonGoogle software to the internet programs is hard. I ended up transferring most of my Microsoft files and contacts manually. Storage space is an issue, too. Google guarantees users 1,000 word files. I have already generated almost 500.

The mobile application works best for those who simply want to check Gmail and send short replies. Downloading attachments of photos, PDF files and Microsoft Word files is slow and fiddly on all but the most modern Java-enabled phones with the biggest screens. If you’re a serious fan of email on the go you’ll almost certainly stick to a BlackBerry.

Working entirely online raises issues surrounding privacy, security and viruses. Google points out that the system is username and password protected and insists that it offers customers the same level of protection as its own staff. Google employees, including senior executives, use cloud computing.

You may worry about losing your data if, say, Mountain View, Google headquarters in California, were destroyed by fire or natural disaster. Google insists that your data are held on servers in several locations, so information can never be lost.

The group makes money by analysing key words entered into its search engine and targeting the searcher with advertising. This will inevitably raise fears that the firm will now “data-mine” people’s documents to target them with ads via Gmail. But Google insists it will never examine the contents of files.

So can man live by Google alone? Will cloud computing become as popular as the Google search engine? After a few months as a techno guinea pig, I think it will — for individuals and small businesses. The problems I encountered, while frustrating, are in truth niggles that are likely to be ironed out soon. I think web-based applications represent the biggest step forward in personal computing since Microsoft launched Windows.

To access cloud computing, open a Googlemail account at www.googlemail.com

To access Googlemail from your phone go to: www.gmail.com/appor www.googlemail.com/app

Document and spreadsheet applications now in UK English are available at: docs.google.com

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