Writely and Google might be talking, Analysis of “web2.0″ companies, $39 experiment

Mar 9, 2006

Om Malik says Google and Writely may be in talks. I’m a huge Writely user, and a huge Google user, so this might be really nice….Here’s what I just posted to Om’s blog as a comment: I have been using Writely for several months now and the effect it has had on how I handle documents is nothing short of a complete transformation. I only use Word now to open files from other people who don’t use tools like Writely, and I immediately copy and paste the contents of the Word file into a Writely file. After editing, I invite the other person to collaborate on my Writely file – this is my way of marketing Writely to others in a grass-roots, “web2.0″ way.To the Google-Writely question, I love Writely as it is right now, both as a service I use daily, and as something that I see being constantly improved by its authors. I can also imagine that a relationship wth Google could have huge potential benefits, i.e. if they integrate Writely and Gmail so that attached documents in a Gmail message can be opened directly in Writely.
Mike Rundle’s analysis of several “web2.0″ companies. Here are his questions:
Are we actually useful or just fun to play with?
Are we actually innovating or just mashing/copying?
Are there barriers to enter our market, or can anyone be us?
Tom Locke asked a slew of companies for free stuff . Here’s what he’s got so far.