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Do we have a shortage of online word processors? Certainly not, but a little competition is always healthy. We’ve seen Google Docs, Zoho Writer, ThinkFree, ajaxWrite and the list goes on. And now, Adobe has announced that they are acquiring Virtual Ubiquity, the company which built Buzzword online word processor.
Buzzword is a full fledge online word processor built upon Adobe’s Flex Development Platform with collaborative features. It supports tables, fonts, images and historical revisions of the documents. Adobe plans to integrate Buzzword with a new service called Adobe Share, which is probably an Adobe’s version of online office suite (like Google Docs or Zoho).
Offline version of Buzzword using AIR platform is said to be under construction, and will come out somewhere around next year. While Zoho has already implemented Google Gears to make their web service function offline, Google also plans to do the same with Google Docs. Looks like the future of online word processors are going to cutthroat. I won’t be surprised, if Microsoft Office gets a run for its money in future.
Adobe had previous invested $100 million in Virtual Ubiquity as venture fund. Terms of this acquisition has not been disclosed.
[Via: CNET and TechCrunch]
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wrote, on October 3rd, 2007
fyi…typo in first paragraph…
“…but a little completion is always healthy.” should read “…but a little COMPETITION is always healthy.
wrote, on October 3rd, 2007
Thanks Brain, Typo fixed!
wrote, on October 3rd, 2007
we end users will definitely get benefit of this cut throat competition
wrote, on November 9th, 2007
Adobe certainly hasn’t treated it’s adopted Macromedia kids as step children. It’s nice to see them pushing Google and Microsoft with Flash, Flex, ColdFusion, and AIR. Flash has come along way since its Skip Intro days. Lightweight graphically appealing asynchronous apps rock.