Office-on-the-GO: Web based Office productivity Apps roundup

When I first saw the HTML Text formatting tabs on blogger, I was wondering, why not somebody extend this functionality to create a small word pad kinda application. With the launch of Google Talk, I believe certainly that some will work on the office. Microsoft Office is the defacto toolset for office productivity worldwide, although there are attempts like Star Office, Open Office, 602 Text and couple of other small players. Since Microsoft's Word file format (.doc) is the most widely used file format, and Microsoft notoriously being a closely locked proprietary technology company, the file format transformation on the web is difficult. I am brutally proved wrong by 4 companies.

1. ThinkFree - ThinkFree is an organisation using JSP & Java Server has created a desktop equvilent of Office and they are offering a free online version of their product ported on to their Java servers. To use the functionality you need to have a free signup and you are asked to download J2SE from Sun Micro Systems to be installed in your machine. Once you installed and restarted your machine, you are on. I dont' any difference from a desktop version in comparison with the web version. It's flawlessly done. Known UI, faster working and even provides a 30MB free storage of your files. You can create word documents, spreadsheets, presentation, pdf files and even post it to your blogger. Amazing piece of work. Online version is in beta.

2. gOffice - gOffice, I thought for a second is from the Google's staple. gOffice provides Word, Spreadsheet, Presentation functionality. Developed in .NET environment, gOffice utilisese the typical HTML based Editor kinda working environment for opening, editing, creating and saving documents. Free Signup and provides a $1 business usage fee. Only Word processing is available presently and others are not available for public. Free Signup

3. Writely - Writely is a web application developed. Using ASP.NET with .NET server functionality, Writely has prepared a online collaborative tool for Word. You can create, open, edit word files and share it with other users for reviewing, tracking and cross checking. Not available publically yet. Online version is in beta. Free Signup

4. InstaColl - I have written already about the poster boy of Indian internet era, Sabeer Bhatia's new found company. InstaColl is not exactly a Office suite, but it integrtes well with Microsoft Office to offer collaboarative features like reviewing, tracking, remote desktop management and so on. Although this is not a Office suite replacement, instaColl chat sessions are more powerful than writely's tool, since they are real-time and provides remote desktop management. The catch I see is you need to download and install the InstaColl chat manager. Download InstaColl

This gives you a fair idea of Office alternatives available presently online. I still believe, Open Office can certainly go in for a web model and provides certainly better functionality and releases API's. With that I believe, developers can write additional functionality and integrate with the online version and provide better working atmosphere online. It's one more time, Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates needs to go back to their drawing board.