Online ajax-rich word processor Writely began accepting new accounts today after closing registration when the company was acquired by Google in March. A number of startups who used to compete with Writely will now have to challenge Google.
Writely’s acquisition fueled talk of a Google Office suite of services, a vision made more real by the subsequent launch of Google Spreadsheets and Google Calender. A Google Drive for online storage has long been rumored to be just around the corner and analysts at Gartner have predicted that a Google PowerPoint type service will be released some time this year. (Garnter references Thumbstacks, see also Zoho Show and our coverage of both.)
Writely is collaboration friendly, can import Word documents, save to PDF, OpenOffice, Rich Text Format and zip. The system autosaves your documents every 10 seconds and offers online storage. Google Accounts will soon be used for signing in. Writely works on Mozilla based browsers and IE only.
Writely got the best review in a recent CNet round-up that goes into detail on its features and compares it to Zoho Writer (our coverage), Think Free Online and Glide Write. Other tools in this class include Rallypoint and WriteBoard.
Now that Writely is publicly available in the Google suite, do these other vendors stand a chance? They certainly may, but yesterday’s surrender from calendar company Kiko - with a nod to Google Calendar - certainly makes you wonder.
Comments
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I look at it this way - Google is trying to Challenge Microsoft. Problem is - Microsoft own 90% of the worlds operating systems not to mention it dwarfs Google in terms of Market Capitalisation.
What I dont get, is why Microsoft doesn’t just focus on what its good at instead of trying to always build apps that compete with Google.
Let them have there Writely, sure 2% of the internet will use it. But if I’m typing up my financial info - there is no way writely is going to get my vote.
Plus it is going to take the Writiely team a century to get the level of Microsoft Word. There is so much “but I can use it away from my PC” - I travel ALOT and I dont think i have ever needed to use something like writely. People have managed for the last 25 years no problem without online apps like this, and I really dont think that there is going to be a huge business change until more features are added.
If writely built in a “paid” version that offered superior security etc etc then maybe. Until then - useless…….
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