The vexed topic of an online word processing system is back on the agenda after Google bought start-up Writely in a potential challenge to Microsoft’s desktop suite
Google Inc. has bought the maker of Writely, an online word processing program that gives the online search engine leader another potential weapon in its escalating battle with Microsoft Corp.
The acquisition of Upstartle, disclosed lately on Google’s Web site, continues the Mountain View, California-based company’s effort to assemble a suite of software applications that are tethered to an Internet connection instead of a single computer’s hard drive.
While the Google press site is mum on the news, Writely, which is the first product developed by a small Silicon Valley start-up called Upstartle, said on its Web site that it has shut down new registrations because it has been acquired by Google.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed and Google did not respond to requests for an interview.
The Silicon Valley based Writely has been quietly delivering a browser-based word processing and collaboration environment. In true Google style, Writely will stay a "beta" service – where it is been since August 2005.
The move appears as a challenge to Microsoft’s Office desktop productivity suite and comes as Microsoft tries to take a bite out of Google’s search business. “Microsoft of late announced availability of its Google-like Windows Live Search beta.”
It is not year clear what Google has planned for Writely, although the start up’s staffers believe that the deal will provide the level of resources previously lacked to improve the service. "Coming to Google will eventually give us a leg up on getting things done that we just have not been able to with our tiny team," Writely said on its site.
Google has, of course, been working towards the concept of a virtual desktop – the desktop being dominated by both Microsoft’s productivity software and operating system. The latest Google Desktop beta built on earlier works targeting single desktops, with the ability to search other desktops.
Naturally, this raised one or two privacy and security concerns.
Upstartle’s Writely service, introduced seven months ago, allows its users to share documents on the Internet so people in different locations can write and edit them together.
Writely does offer something of a challenge to Microsoft, because – like Office – it is going beyond the traditional concept of "just" word processing, unlike Sun’s StarOffice.
Writely is a Web-based, collaborative document editor, but Upstartle believes it is an entry point to a new way to manage documents, projects and Web sites online. The software is offered today as a free service in the software-as-a-service model.
Writely already contains RSS integration so users can track changes made to a document and it supports full revision history on every document. Users also can post documents to a blog from Writely and they can create Web pages within the service.
Writely adds online collaboration and sharing, notions that are being pushed hard by Microsoft in newer versions of Office through integration with the Windows server family. Writely features include version control, document sharing, and the ability to post documents as Word, OpenOffice, RTF, PDF, HTML, and zip files. There is also support for popular blog services, enabling users to write and publish their blogs from within Writely.
Upstartle co-founder Sam Schillace told Network World in December that Writely planned to introduce a premium level of service, presumably for a fee, that was geared more toward corporations and corporate workgroups and would include document and user specific permissions. He said it would include password protected documents and user accounts.
In October, Google announced a pending partnership with Sun and ignited buzz that it was developing a set of online productivity applications to rival Microsoft. The buzz was way off the mark as the deal centered on distribution of Google’s toolbar with Sun’s Java Runtime Environment software.
But at the time, Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund wrote in a research note: "We suspect both Yahoo and Google will want to extend their e-mail products to look a lot richer and more like Microsoft Outlook ‘adding calendar and contact management to e-mail’ and may decide to throw in spreadsheet and word processing capabilities while they are at it to be more competitive with Office."
Upstartle co-founder Claudia Carpenter wrote on her blog, "Yes, we have been acquired by Google, and we are really excited about this for many, many reasons." She said the No. 1 priority is to "maintain and improve the reliability, privacy and security of the Writely service for our current users."
She said Writely would soon move to Google’s architecture in anticipation of a flood of new users. Current Writely customers will still be able to use the site.
Writely could be that ingredient in the mix since it is an application developed using Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (AJAX), a set of programming controls that allows user to create Web-based applications that behave like desktop software.
Google has exploited AJAX for some of its most eye-pooping services such as GMail and Google Maps.
Writely was not the only news Google made lately. The company announced it had agreed to pay $90 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over "click-fraud."
Google did not reveal how much it paid for Upstartle. In an analyst presentation last week, Google said it has been aggressively buying high-tech startups to deepen its product line as well as its pool of engineering talent.
In addition, the company inadvertently posted internal financial projections on its Web site. Google disclosed that it was projecting advertising revenue would increase 58% from $6 billion in 2005 to $9.5 billion in 2006. The company said the information should not be regarded as financial guidance.
Much of Google’s recent buildup appears to be positioning the company to challenge Microsoft, whose dominant Windows operating system and other popular software programs influence how people use their computers. Microsoft in turn has been investing heavily to improve its search technology, hoping to lure traffic away from Google.
Any Google/Writely service will take a lot of honing if it is intended to compete against Office, though. One Writely staffer called the service "far from perfect," a point Microsoft highlighted in down playing news of the acquisition itself and any competition from Google.
A Microsoft spokesperson tactfully welcomed competition in the Office marketplace, but said Microsoft’s suite is the "the clear leader" because customers benefit from the company’s focus on making them become "more productive."
Google was unavailable for comment.
The free service is not currently accepting new users; people who want to give Writely a try now, are invited to put their name on a special waiting list. Writely will move its architecture to Google’s networks, and as a result has place registering for the service on hold until that has been completed