Google gets inside MS Office

Google continues to use the fact that the main competitor of the new MS Office 2010 is not Google Docs but Office 2007/2003. "Why should I pay some hundreds of dollars for the new Office 2010?" - user thinking. "First, it has more beautiful buttons. Second, you can sync with online Office Web Apps" - says Microsoft. "Hey, you don't need to update! " - Google enters the conversation - "Now you can sync between Office 2003/2007 and Google Docs in real time." Today Google has introduced Cloud Connect - the plug-in that allows to open documents, spreadsheets and presentations from Google Docs in MS Office applications, edit them and save back. Moreover, multiple people can edit the same document simultaneously and Google will keep track of the versions and conflict resolution.



Cloud Connect is a remake of DocVerse that was bought by Google in March this year. DocVerse was originally designed for collaborative editing in MS Office and used Google Docs account as a synchronization point. Google added to it the ability to edit documents in Google Docs. This means that several people can collaborate on a document either in desktop Office, or in browser, or on a mobile device (Android, iPhone, Windows Phone).

At the moment, Cloud Connect is available only to paid Google Apps users, but soon will be available for all and for free. And it is not surprising, because it's the best weapon for Google in the fight against MS Office.

Cloud Connect duplicates the functionality of another well-known plug-in OffiSync (which costs $ 30). Apparently, the OffiSync business has come to the end.

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