Adobe buys web word processor

Adobe Systems has officially entered the "web office" game.

The company is expected to announce it has acquired an 11-person start-up, called Virtual Ubiquity, that has built a free web word processor called Buzzword. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The move expands Adobe's collaborative software services and steps up its competition with Microsoft and a host of other web application providers, including Google.

Adobe is also scheduled to announce a service, code-named Share, that allows people to invite others to view and access documents stored by Adobe. Documents can be embedded inside a web page as well. The service, which is still in testing mode, will offer users 1GB of storage for free.

Adobe executives are scheduled to detail these initiatives at its Max 2007 developer and designer conference, which starts today in Chicago.

Microsoft, meanwhile, is expected to detail its own document collaboration service called Office Live Workspace, a free online tool for viewing, sharing and storing Office documents online.

In other Max announcements, Adobe plans to release the beta version of its desktop video viewer, Adobe Media Player, which is now being used by CBS, PBS and Yahoo! to distribute multimedia content with advertising. Adobe Media Player version 1.0 is due in the first half of next year.

The technology underpinning these applications is Adobe's Flash Player and AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), software that lets web applications run offline. The programs were written using its Flex development tool.

The company's strategy is to assemble a series of collaboration products and services on top of its development platform, said Erik Larson, director of marketing and product management at Adobe. Buzzword will complement its existing online services Adobe Connect and Create PDF, he said.

Larson said: "Our focus is on document collaboration around a lot of different kinds of documents. There is a lot that can be done with the Adobe platform, and there are still unrealised promises."

Larson said Adobe will focus on online collaboration of "high fidelity" documents, or those that appear the same on-screen and when printed out.

The plan is to make these applications free for paid premium services to businesses.

Rick Treitman, CEO of Virtual Ubiquity, said his company decided to use Adobe developer technologies because they were better than other available programming methods. Adobe invested in the company last year as part of a venture fund set up to promote applications on Flash and AIR.

What sets Buzzword apart from other online word processors is the pagination - it allows people to get an accurate view of how a document will print out as the document is edited. It also has the ability to embed graphics, track changes and organise files.

Treitman said: "Flex and Flash were the means to where we want to go. No one else realised how powerful it was as a virtual machine."

John Doyle, CommuniGate Systems' vice president of business development, said Adobe has the wherewithal to build a line of compelling and simple-to-use rich internet applications that could lure businesses away from Microsoft Office.

Doyle said: "If anybody has the financial strength, the market reach and the track record of making very good applications, it's Adobe. They're able to overnight-ship applications through Flash to browsers that will be accessible by 96 per cent of the users in the world. That's huge."

Martin LaMonica writes for CNET News.com