Google announced its acquisition of DocVerse, which allows groups to collaborate online on Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, on 5 March. The purchase gives Google another competitive angle as it seeks to expand Google Docs, its online productivity suite, in both the consumer and business segments.
“For the many people who use desktop software, like Microsoft Office, transitioning to the cloud was a challenge,” DocVerse founders Shan Sinha and Alex DeNeui wrote on the DocVerse blog.
Web applications such as Google Apps and Office “do not play well together,” Sinha and DeNeui wrote. “Most times, teams choose one product or the other. Google’s acquisition of DocVerse represents a first step [toward solving] these problems.” At the heart of DocVerse’s functionality is its ability to allow real-time sharing and simultaneous editing of PowerPoint, Excel and Word documents.
“We recognise that many people are still accustomed to desktop software,” Jonathan Rochelle, group product manager for the Google Apps team, wrote on the Google Enterprise blog. “So as we continue to improve Google Docs and Google Sites as rich collaboration tools, we’re also making it easier for people to transition to the cloud and interoperate with desktop applications like Microsoft Office.”
Rochelle added: “DocVerse is a small, nimble team of talented developers who share our vision, and they’ve enabled true collaboration right within Microsoft Office.”
In the interim, Google has suspended new DocVerse signups, although current users will be able to continue operating as usual. The Wall Street Journal cited a source as saying Google acquired DocVerse for about $25 million (£16.5m).
Google and Microsoft have been competing ever more fiercely in the cloud space. Responding to the challenge presented by Google Apps, Microsoft is planning to make a portion of its upcoming Office 2010 a free cloud-based productivity platform. Windows Live subscribers will be able to access stripped-down online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote; however, users wanting the full scope of Office 2010 features will still need to buy the desktop-based version.
Microsoft is also offering a mobile version of Office for its Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone operating system, as well as rival Nokia’s Symbian OS.
Google has announced plans for a dedicated federal cloud computing system sometime in 2010, a move that likely encouraged Microsoft’s drive to produce Business Productivity Online Suite Federal, a services cloud unveiled on 24 February that will operate within a rigorous security protocol.
As competition between the two companies heats up, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced during a March 4 speech at the University of Washington that his company’s inspiration for new products and services will henceforth start “with the cloud.”
“This is the bet for our company,” Ballmer said. “We’re all in.”
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Security emptied of it's abilities by odd US Justice Department rulings forcing Microsoft to open up it's source code to hackers. What will Windows 7 users do when attack wave after attack wave begins? Blame Microsoft? Google has it's source code stolen in a hack by the Chinese Government and Chinese botnets are targeting everything from individual computers to military secrets, in "the cloud". When will the discussion turn to the network equipment and re-routing responsible for these attacks, rather than the false arguments about software? The software is based on the hardware and all of that is now being forced into China based manufacturing facilities as they begin a block and withholding of REE (rare earth elements).
All of the arguments will soon be moot as software moves onto Chinese chips and the networks become purely hardware AS "the cloud".
They will be wireless not only to a keyboard, mouse and screen but also to embedded devices accessing the human brain. At that point, just like it was not known until too late that Chinese hackers were behind firewalls, it will be too late for people. The time is right now to recognize the communications technology issues for what they really are and get past the psycho babble.
We need an automated system to protect people from China.