NEW YORK: Google Inc. has made its beta Writely online word processor available to public last week, reopening it to new users. While the company did not create any hype about the launch, the Writely's blog carried a minor mention.
As Google bought Upstartle, which originally owned Writely, it closed down access to the program to the public with a view for its programmers to understand the nuances of AJAX technology and Google seems to be ready with a new version, which is now available to the public.
Writely is basically targeted at the blogger community. It offers unlimited storage with a limit of 500K per file and has facility to import and export a number of commonly used formats like MS Word, RTF and OpenOffice.
With Writely now online and Google Spreadsheet already available since early this year, Google's strategy to create an online office suite and take on the desktop systems pioneered by Microsoft, seems to be materializing. However, Microsoft is not sitting idle. It came out with a Writer online word processor program last week, which is part of its Windows Live suite of services.
Writely requires a user to sign up for an account. The program allows users to share documents online, edit them from anywhere and store documents online. It allows Word and OpenOffice documents in .doc, .odt, .rtf, or pdf, .sxw, and HTML formats, along with tables, images and specifications.
Meanwhile, several startups, which have now been offering similar online services are making their presence felt. While analysts believe these cannot in any way harm the interests of the desktop domain, their existence seems to be under threat by the large scale presence of Google. Take for example, the plight of online calendar company Kiko, which has been put up on sale in eBay. So far, there are buyers.
