Google challenges Microsoft by buying the web based word processor Writely.

At the same time as Microsoft plans to take over Google’s search market, Google is busy building up services to compete with Microsoft. In essence Google is trying to move as much of your work as possible online, away from the Microsoft Windows environment.

Weakening the link between Windows and the user

Google is doing this by offering software and services that may replace (1) some of the traditional packages you use to install on your Windows computer or (2) various online Microsoft services. These Google offerings now include photo editing and publishing, chat programs, discussion forums, blog services, navigation software and much more.

Furthermore, this strategy also includes measures aimed at taking over the Windows desktop itself (browser and desktop toolbars, desktop search tools etc).

Many of these services are purely web based, meaning that you can use them on any computer in the world using your Google ID (i.e. Gmail address) or even without logging in. In this way Google weakens the strong bond that has used to exist between the user and the Windows based computer.

A plan to replace Microsoft Office?

Still, Microsoft still has Office, the de facto standard software package for word processing, presentations and spread sheets. Google has so far not tried to compete in this area, but that may be about to change.

It is not that Google is going to launch it’s own Office software. They would rather like you to move your writing from your computer to the Web, that is away from Microsoft and onto Google’s turf.

The company is doing this by buying Writely, a web based word processor. Writely lets you save documents online and share them with others.

And yes, Writely is Word compatible, meaning that you can upload Microsoft World files and work on them online (although whether it will keep all the formatting is unknown to us).

You can also save documents in PDF, RTF, ODT, HTML or Word format, which makes it possible to cooperate with people who are still working the “old fashioned way”. Moreover, Writely can also be used for blogging.

“For the last five months, I’ve been part of a Silicon Valley start-up called Upstartle, which makes Writely, a collaborative word processor that runs in a web browser,” Jen Mazzon of the Writely team says. “Well, as of Monday, I’m happy to say that I, and the rest of the Writely team, are now part of Google.”

Google, your global hard drive

The acquisiton of Writely fits well with the rumors of Google developing an online storage area, a kind of extension of Gmail that lets you store not only emails and email attachments, but any kind of file.

It also fits in with the latest addition to the Google Desktop Software that lets you move files from one PC to another via the Google computers, effectively storing files online.

The software and the server system used by Google are very flexible. They scale easily, and can be extended by adding more cheap PCs to the Google networks of computers.

Google seems to believe that they ultimately should be able to replace the hard drives of a large number of users, meaning that we will store our text, photo and music files on Google’s servers and not on our own PC.

This is partly why Google is fighting US authorities trying to get access to information and names from the Google servers. For this massive online storage plan to succeed, users must be 100 percent sure that the information will be protected and not made available to others.

Search

So what has this to do with search? Well, if you use Google’s Gmail, use Blogger for blogging, Writely for text editing and whatever next they will come up with for other types of content creation, you will of course be able to use Google’s search technology to search all this material.

In this way Google is no longer your search engine for Web searching only. It has now become the only search engine you need for anything.

In essence Google has turned Microsoft’s strategy on its head. Microsoft plans to integrate Web search seamlessly into the new Windows Vista operating system, making it unpractical to go to Google to search the Web. Google, on the other hand, would like to move as much of your work offline, making it impracticable to use the operating system to search for files.

Beyond Writely

It is a fair guess that Google won’t stop with Writely. There is nothing to stop them from developing a online spread sheet as well.

And what about presentation packages like Power Point or Apple’s Keynote?

Well, given that more and more office and conference hall computers are now connected to the Internet via WiFi or Ethernet cables, it probably won’t take long before you can leave your PC or stick behind and start your presentation directly from the Web. AfterAfter all, with the use of simple HTML or more advanced PDF files, you could actually do so already.

Moreover, Google already has Google Base, an online database service.

Wait for Writely

If you want to start using Writely, you will have to be patient. It is still in beta and by invitation only. You can sign up on the waiting list, though.