Adobe buys Buzzword, debuts Share
updated 06:25 pm EDT, Mon October 1, 2007
Adobe buys Buzzword
Taking on Microsoft's traditional Office productivity suite and Google's online apps, Adobe on Monday announced the company has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Virtual Ubiquity and its online word processor, Buzzword as well as added a new file sharing service to its current online document services. Codenamed “Share,” the beta service for people to share, publish and organize documents online. Built with Adobe Flex software, Buzzword enables greater document quality, advanced typography, page layout controls, and robust support for integrated graphics -- regardless of the browser or device.
The application also will run on Adobe AIR platform, offering users a hybrid online/offline experience, including the ability to work with both hosted and local documents. Collaboration capabilities in Buzzword enable multiple authors to edit and comment on documents from anywhere, at anytime, while document creators can set permissions to help eliminate what the company calls "version control chaos."
In addition, Adobe introduced two new destinations for developers and designers: the new Adobe Developer Connection is a free, centralized portal for developers and designers to engage with the community, share ideas and learn about the latest technologies; and the Adobe AIR Marketplace is a web site where developers can publish and promote Adobe AIR applications.
Finally, Adobe offered a glance into future hosted services that RIA developers can leverage for voice, collaboration, imaging and document sharing. The company demonstrated a new project that will provide developers with a fast and easy way to implement real-time communications in existing Web applications; new collaboration APIs to integrate Adobe Acrobat Connect components into their own RIAs; Adobe Scene7 open APIs that enable developers to build custom rich media applications with dynamic imaging; and a new file sharing service for people to share, publish and organize documents online.
New beta versions of the Adobe AIR runtime (beta 2) and the Adobe AIR SDK, as well as Adobe Flex Builder 3 (beta 2) and Adobe Flex 3 SDK are available.
