Google Accounts … an oddity.

I’ve mentioned in the past, tools like Google Spreadsheets and Google Docs, as a way of collaborating on Documents. I’ve just discovered from a couple of conversations with people that if you want to collaborate using them, they both work slightly differently.
Google Docs (which, was originally Writely and thus outside the Google empire) requires that the invitees have Google accounts prior to invitation. So, anyone who’s got a Gmail a/c has one, as has anyone who has signed up with a non-gmail address to a Google service. If you’re setting up a shared spreadsheet, (which was developed by Google), then those that haven’t got Google accounts are invited to create them. It’s a bit confusing if you aren’t aware of that difference.
(Makes me wonder though how John and Jonathan got on when they got 50 students to all work on the same Google Doc in HUCID … did they really have to invite the lot?!)