TechBulletin

Google has bought Upstartle - the maker of Writely, which is a Web-based word processing software. The company has not disclosed the terms of the deal.

Writely is a Free web word processor which lets you share and collaborate your work online.

With this acquisition, Google has added word processing to the search and e-mail products it already offers for consumer desktops.

Google says its goal is to put the Internet at the centre of the consumer experience. The company has hinted time and again, that it wants users to run their programs and store their files on Google servers rather than only on their home computers.

Google’s move puts the company in competition with Microsoft which has largely defined the user experience with its Windows operating system and Office productivity software.

Upstartle’s Writely service was introduced seven months ago, and lets users create and edit documents online plus gives them access to up to 50 other documents, which they can then publish online. Writely is compatible with Microsoft Word; users can save Writely documents as Word files and Word files can be edited with Writely.

The software is currently free, though registration has been shut down while the company integrates its service with Google.

The site says The Web Word Processor…that’s now part of Google. Hello Gates !! Are you listening ?