It was announced yesterday at the CeBit in Hanover, Germany that Google had purchased online word-processing firm Writely (www.writely.com) . When one visits the site, one is directed to another page that allows you to sign up for the service after they have completed the acquisition and the GUI has been converted. The question being bandied about is whether Google Office will replace MS Office which has been in existence for a very long time. The issue is moot. The question today is not what form the communications necessarily take, but how a piece of communication is prepared, in what form it is saved or savable to, how it is packeted for delivery to either a printer or digitally and last how it is transmitted, making the transfer of the thought of the writer therefore complete and thus accomplished. If people can see that Google gives them a better chance to accomplish what MS Office has, and does it for free, the war will not last very long, save for what will likely be a substantial amount of holdouts who do not want to see their documentation stored offsite or somewhere in the internet ether. It is those privacy and security concerns that will make or break Google Office.
Randy Shiner
Dan Farber: Showing it's more than a little interested in enabling people to handle office tasks over the Net, Google buys start-up Writely -- and the blogosphere swarms. While Writely doesn't suggest an full-fledged MS Office competitor, it fits into the notion of a bottoms-up Google Web 2.0 Office.
READ FULL STORY
Also: Why Writely is Microsoft's Pearl Harbor
Dion Hinchcliffe: One step closer to a Google Office suite
Richard Stiennon: Why should we trust them with our documents?
