This is a perfect example of Google's absolute failure at marketing docs/apps.
If this had been rolled out as a feature in Apple Pages, we'd have seen it demonstrated on stage, even if only for a moment, and given an easy to remember name (Pages with "Cloud Complete", Pages with "Net Functions", etc.). There would have been deserved oohs and ahhs. It would have been widely reported on and helped ship units.
Google buries the lede and thus misses another great opportunity to show off a really neat feature.
I tried a few samples and the result was not always what the G+ Post suggests.
For example, I tried Nimitz, Independence, expecting the rest of the cells to be filled with a few more US Navy Aircraft Carriers and the result was nowhere close.
Advertising/Marketing a "feature" that does not work as intended is a far worse scenario for Google than the current state.
According to the buzzfeed article, the feature was pulled from a discontinued project called Google Sets. So yeah, sounds like they had a cool feature built that is no longer getting updated and they decided to toss it in to google docs.
EDIT: ahh, sorry. Just saw the other comment that points out Google Sets. Anyway, this is really cool, playing around with it now, when I should be working.
If this had been rolled out as a feature in Apple Pages, we'd have seen it demonstrated on stage, even if only for a moment, and given an easy to remember name (Pages with "Cloud Complete", Pages with "Net Functions", etc.). There would have been deserved oohs and ahhs. It would have been widely reported on and helped ship units.
Google buries the lede and thus misses another great opportunity to show off a really neat feature.