Google snaps up Office collaboration start-up
- Reduce text size Decrease text size
- Increase text size Increase text size
- Print article Print
- Jump to comments Comment
- Share this article Share
- Email article to a friend Email
Search giant turns up the heat on Microsoft as it hoovers up cloud-based collaboration project DocVerse
Search engine colossus Google has moved to expand its online business tools offering with the acquisition of DocVerse, a start-up that has developed a cloud-based collaboration platform based around Microsoft Office.
DocVerse, which was founded three years ago by two ex-Microsoft staffers, allows users to add real-time collaboration functionality to projects created in Microsoft Office, including documents, spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations.
The acquisition could allow Google to provide interoperable collaboration between both Microsoft Office and its own cloud-based Google Docs application package, which would improve the latter's position as a competitor for both Office, and Microsoft's own collaboration suite, Sharepoint. Microsoft is due to launch its own rival for Google's free web-based Docs package later this year.
"The future of productivity applications is in the cloud," wrote Jonathan Rochelle, group product manager at Google Apps, in an official company blog post. "But we recognise that many people are still accustomed to desktop software. 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."
The value of the deal was not disclosed by either party, but the Wall Street Journal estimates it to be somewhere around the $25 million mark. DocVerse is Google's fourth acquisition in less than a month, following the purchases of social media website Aardvark, iPhone email app ReMail and image editing platform Picnik.
Also this week, Google launched a Public Data Explorer platform, which allows users to examine and compare visualised data sets on themes including mortality, unemployment and education.
This is a good move by Google, their Google docs product is good and flexible but as yet does not have the same advanced facilities such as www.box.net which I use for my business where I can simply jump in and out of folders.
Report this comment »