Google gobbles another
There’s been chatter for a long time about the concept of a browser-based office suite and now it’s closer to reality with the announcement of Google’s purchase of Writely.
According to a story today in PC World’s Techlog:
What Google is going to do with Writely isn’t entirely clear–it says there are no plans to embed advertising in the service–but it’s yet another recent example (along with Google Base, the new Google Desktop, and Google Page Creator) of Google doing something involving being a repository for information, not just an indexer of it. (They’ve always said that their mission was to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”–maybe it’s time to add “and store it, too” to that statement.
And from Search Engine Lowdown:
What will this mean for marketers? Ad buys on the tools – besides email – that people use all day. The fragmentation of search – now we’ll be optimizing client sites so their white papers and case studies appear on the budgeting spreadsheets people are working on.
Lately, it seems like several times a week there’s an announcement of yet another Google acquisition or new product. I don’t know how they keep it all straight. Seems they are making significant inroads towards their goal. But, frankly, I’m starting to get a tad bit heebie jeebie about just how far Google’s going to go. They’re certainly not the “little” guy anymore. “Google it” is taking on a whole new meaning…search it, write it, store it, advertise it, measure it, buy it….it…it….it….
But you’ve got to admit, the folks at Writely sound like they’re on cloud nine — this from their blog.
Here are our “top 10″ reasons why being part of Google is fantastic for Writely and the Writely team:
10. Writely is like a caterpillar that we hope to make into a beautiful butterfly at Google!
9. We love Google’s philosophy and values — especially “Focus on the user.”
8. We’re as passionate as Google is about respecting users’ privacy.
7. Many of our users are already Google fans using other Google services.
6. Being at Google will help us do more great things faster.
5. Some people didn’t feel comfortable trusting a tiny startup with their documents…and we’re no longer a tiny startup.
4. We like lava lamps and they’re pretty much standard decor at Google.
3. Three words: Free Googleplex lunches
2. As fun as it’s been to launch a popular, global, 24×7 Web service, it’ll be nice to take a vacation once in a while!
…and the number one reason???
1. We’ll be able to bring Writely to not just thousands but millions of users — the more, the merrier
This post was written by: Kim Mickelsen