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docverse

This week's Google acquisition: DocVerse

Google plucked another start-up from the Bay Area Friday, this time adding DocVerse to its Google Apps team.

The deal--which The Wall Street Journal reported was valued at $25 million--will allow Google to start blending DocVerse's Microsoft Office plug-in software into Google Apps, DocVerse and Google said in blog postings on their respective sites. DocVerse's software and service is designed to let Office users who still need a lot of the power and features of the desktop version of that software share documents and track changes with colleagues online.

The move had been expected for a while, but … Read more

Former Microsoft employees aim to googlify Office

More than a decade ago, Microsoft won the office productivity suite war against WordPerfect, and arguably, Office has seen little innovation since.

Just as Mozilla Chairman Mitchell Baker has argued in the browser market--namely, that once Microsoft had beat out browser competitors, it failed to innovate for years--so, too, has Microsoft rested on its Office laurels for far too long.

Enter DocVerse, a stealth San Francisco start-up created by two former Microsoft employees that aims to make Microsoft Office operate more like Google Docs, as reported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. DocVerse provides a 1MB plug-in to Office 2007 that … Read more