In yet another step into Microsoft territory, Google on Wednesday released a package of applications that directly compete with the software giant"s Office suite. Google is using its popularity in the search engine realm to garner attention for its Web 2.0 applications, Writely and Google Spreadsheets. Writely is a Web-based word processing program targeting Microsoft Word. Google Spreadsheets aims at Excel. Dubbed Google Docs & Spreadsheets, the bundle is available free of charge. The programs allow users to create and share documents online within a Web browser, one of the promises of Web 2.0.
Rumors of a Microsoft Office killer started earlier this year. Google acquired Upstartle, maker of Writely, in March. The software allows you to edit documents online, then publish them via blogs and other Web sites. Writely users can upload Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or text documents, or create a document from scratch. A WYSIWYG editor formats and spell-checks the documents online. Google is now dropping the Writely name.
Google Labs launched Google Spreadsheets in June. Google hopes integrating the applications, both of which are still in beta, will make online document sharing and collaboration easier.