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Writely, Zoho and Google

Having been inundated with politics and other national news, you may not have noticed the assault Google launched against Microsoft in its purchase of Web-based word processor Writely. Perhaps not a direct assault and maybe only wistful thinking, but the deal has created a swarm among tech bloggers. Writely’s product is a cool word processor that is embedded in a web browser. Accessed online, it provides collaboration tools not available in Microsoft’s Office suite (which incidentally posted $11 billion in revenue last year). In addition, the online product imports and exports into Word format, easily embeds images, has a WYSIWYG editor, gives drag and drop functionality, and allows sharing of documents and PDF conversion (more here).

Significantly, Writely interacts with other Internet-based programs and services and uses Open Document Format - keys to reducing dependencies on Microsoft Office. However, for the home consumer, the product lacks a local backup and many other standard Word features (more here). Following the acquisition of Writely, the service is not available for new users.

So, if your interested in online wordprocessors, check out one of the other free services available, such as Zoho. In fact, this post was composed entirely in Zohowriter, a solid WP with the ability to interface any number of blogging systems.

Posted by tim at March 13, 2006 6:38 AM

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