Comments for Google acquires Writely - one of my Web Office Suite picks

Google acquires Writely - one of my Web Office Suite picks

2006-03-09T19:19:07Z

Google has acquired what I chose as the 'best of breed' Web-based word processing app in my recent ZDNet post Web Office Suite [news via TechCrunch] The Writely blog is rightly chuffed:

"...everyone told us it was crazy to try and give people a way to access their documents from anywhere -- not to mention share documents instantly, or collaborate online within their browsers. But that's exactly what we did. And since we launched the Writely beta in August 2005, many thousands of people have registered, and all of them came through word of mouth (and blog)."

So with the best of breed email and word processing services now in Google's upcoming Web Office Suite (it's undeniable now), and the Calendar looking good and ready to launch, that only leaves spreadsheet and presentation tools to come. Om Malik thinks Google Base is the Access killer. Hmmm, interesting times. Game on Microsoft! Office Live in its present form just won't cut it very soon...

Comment from pete on 2006-03-11

2006-03-11T21:57:10Z

Collaborative document production? This is nothing new. Lotus Notes was doing exactly that back in the mid 90's. On intranets. The advantage of Notes, and why it was chosen over web based technology? It had a local store so workers could take it offline.

Here's why collaborative documents over the web will not work:

The main users of this function are corporates. Corporates aren't going to expose their networks and IP to third parties lightly, or their productivity to the vagaries of internet connection issues. Corporates build network infrastructure and wrap it up in SLAs because they demand 100% availability. Every minute of downtime can, and does, cost thousands in lost productivity. There are huge costs associated with lack of availability.

The internet is often seen as a weak delivery system, and let's not get started on secuity. The risk assesment will kill web word processing dead. The costs are too high. Many SMEs will feel the same way.

So who is the audience for web word processing? Students? Web kids? How often do they collaborate on documents?

I used to work on knowledge management systems (Notes) for corporates. Most of the changes involved in implementing knowledge management systems are cultural, not technical. Just because a software feature enables something to happen does not mean people will adapt and use it.

Word processing must be "always on". People will not give that access up.

And why should they?

Salesforce is one thing. Accounting, legal and HR exist in an entirely different regulatory environment.

There is no business case.

Comment from Richard MacManus on 2006-03-11

2006-03-11T11:30:33Z

check out this post pete:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=125

Comment from pete on 2006-03-11

2006-03-11T10:06:11Z

"*web* word processing"

Perhaps I'm missing something....
....but so what?

Why would I want my web processing to be web based?
What happens when I don't have a web connection?

Comment from Richard MacManus on 2006-03-10

2006-03-11T06:40:02Z

pete, it's best-of-breed *web* word processing.

Comment from pete on 2006-03-10

2006-03-11T05:06:32Z

Best of breed word processing?
It's a sub MS-Works.....
And who uses that?
Exactly.

Comment from Eric on 2006-03-09

2006-03-09T21:28:25Z

With regards to Google Calendar and why it's "CL2", I remember a couple of months ago (before New Year) there was a rumor a Google Calendar launch was imminent, they took the URL live and everything, but then it never happened. I wonder if they had one, then took it back to the drawing board at the last minute?

Comment from Eric Schiller on 2006-03-09

2006-03-09T20:33:26Z

I happen to use writely quite a bit, it is very handy for when I'm on a computer at school that doesn't have word. I'm glad for them.

Comment from Richard MacManus on 2006-03-09

2006-03-09T19:59:35Z

At least they didn't call it CL2.0 ;-)

But seriously, yes this is a wake-up call to Microsoft (but honestly I think they're already awake to it).

Comment from Charles on 2006-03-09

2006-03-09T19:49:15Z

Heh, I just saw this on Digg and immediately rushed over here to tell you about it, having read your last post earlier this morning...thought I could beat you to it :)

Anyway, this seems to me to be the first really clear shot across microsofts bow. Calendaring is also I guess, but others have been trying calendaring online for ages (hopefully CL2 gets it right).

Speaking of the name CL2...does that mean there was a CL1? Did I miss something?