Mountain View, California — In the insect world, parasitic wasps inject larvae into certain caterpillars. The larvae feed on the caterpillars, turn them into zombies, and eventually devour them. A similar concept is adopted by the Internet search engine behemoth Google, Google is putting its DocVerse team to use, unleashing a new plug-in for Google Docs that lets offline Microsoft Word documents communicate with Web-based Google Docs files.
This may seem like an overly dramatic metaphor to use to describe Google’s strategy for dealing with Microsoft, but the parallels are eerily similar. The search engine titan has transformed one of its acquisitions into Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, a new tool that lets users simultaneously edit an Office doc via the cloud.
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The application supporting Google Cloud Connect is derived from DocVerse, a productivity tool that Google snapped earlier this year that empowers multiple users to collaborate and edit Microsoft Office documents. On Monday, unleashed in beta, Google Cloud Connect is an add-on for Office that syncs documents, spreadsheets and presentations from Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 with the “Google cloud.”
In other words, the application lets Microsoft Office users who also have Google Apps accounts sync their documents with Google without having to work within the Google Docs Web interface, assigns it a unique URL and continually syncs the data with anybody else that might be sharing and collaborating the same document.
“Users of Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 can sync their Office documents to the Google cloud, without ever leaving Office,” wrote DocVerse co-founder and Google group product manager Shan Sinha in a draft blog post provided by Google. “Once synced, documents are backed-up, assigned a unique URL, and can be accessed from anywhere (including mobile devices) at any time through Google Docs. And because the files are stored in the cloud, people always have access to the most latest version.”
It is perhaps most apparent in Google Chrome Frame, software that seizes certain page rendering functions from Internet Explorer 6 and replaces them with Chrome’s JavaScript engine.
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Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office links native Office documents with a company’s Google Apps account. (Credit: Google)
“This sidebar is where all of DocVerse’s wonder-work happens. You can invite friends and colleagues to collaborate on any documents. As you and others make edits, those changes are synced to the cloud. In addition to a hard copy, the plug-in automatically saves a web-based version of the doc that others can see to make collaboration easy.”
Today’s release is all about luring Office users to slowly switch to Google Docs. The search engine giant has been trying for several years now to convince businesses to migrate away from Microsoft’s Office suite, but there are still lots of businesses that prefer all the bells and whistles that come with the native applications. By dipping their toes into the waters of Google Docs via their business colleagues and friends, loyal Office users will get used to Google’s offering and eventually discard Microsoft’s productivity suite for good. At least, that’s what Google hopes.