Redmond, Washington — Microsoft has long trialled behind Google in almost everything that is connected with the Internet. But the software maker has lifted the curtain on a new online beta project called simply Docs that for the first time will let Facebookers create and share documents authored in Office 2010, which indicates that Microsoft may understand social networking better than Google. And it won’t be the first time.
Facebook has now become the newest battle-ground for Office 2010 and Microsoft’s latest shot back at Google’s free and hosted Docs suite.
Those who are familiar with SkyDrive would already know of the integrated Windows Live support that Office Web Apps provides, but today announces the Facebook-friendly version. Docs.com went live on Wednesday at Facebook’s F8 conference.
Delivering a speech today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new Facebook app from Microsoft called Docs, which lets Microsoft Office documents be shared with Facebook friends.
Docs is based on Office Web apps, the eagerly awaited online installment of Office 2010 that will be released at the beginning of next week and will rely greatly on SharePoint 2010. However, as Mary Jo Foley reports, the “new Facebook element” that enables Docs to work was not outlined or detailed; though it does allow seamless integration between the two platforms.
Docs is a venture that has been speedily turned around in just four months by Microsoft’s Future Social Experiences Labs (FUSE) under general manager Lili Cheng.
FUSE was created by chief software architect Ray Ozzie in October 2009. Cheng said in a blog post here that Docs “adapts” Office Web apps: “Docs.com integrated with the Facebook experience bring together the best of ‘software’ with the best of ‘services.’”
“It has been quite a hectic schedule for the FUSE team to deliver this beta – from concept to its initial implementation in less than four months,” says Fuse in its announcement. “The FUSE Labs mission is to explore a range of “Future Social Experiences”. In this exploration it is our belief that we may increase the value of Office ‘docs’ by giving everyone the ability to seamlessly take their friends and connections with them from Facebook to docs.com.”
When the service goes live, Facebook users can log in using Facebook Connect and will be able to create Office documents on the Web, edit and share them with their Facebook friends.
“The fact that we have been able to accommodate the Office 2010 “Web Apps” technology to work directly with Facebook truly speaks to the flexibility and power not just of the Facebook platform, but also of the Office system’s rich “contextual collaboration” capabilities,” the company adds. “And we would never have been able to achieve our critical “simplicity” goals had it not been for our ability to use a new test feature from Facebook that allows us to build an instantly personalized and seamless document authorization & sharing experience directly from our site.”
The Docs experiment emerges as Microsoft prepares to release the hosted and onsite versions of Office Web apps, along with the full Office 2010 due for official launch next month but available to big customers on volume licenses starting next week.
Nonetheless, it is no secret that Microsoft and Facebook have not only common certain interests but recognize each other as a major superpower in the technology and online arena, and by working together it increases the blow on rival companies like Google and Yahoo!.