Microcontent Office

Observer, 12/2/2007: Microcontent Office

The signs of the paradigm shift are everywhere. Here's an intriguing
one. If you're a Google Mail user and someone sends you a message with
a Microsoft Word document attached, Gmail will offer you two options:
do you want to download the attachment to your hard drive (from where
you can open it in Microsoft Word)? Or do you want to open it as a
'Google document'?

If you choose the latter, the document appears
looking exactly as it does in Microsoft Word, with a toolbar offering
many of the same formatting options. You can insert comments. But there
are also some other buttons available. One is marked 'Collaborate': it
allows you to invite other people to collaborate on editing the
document. Another option is 'Publish': it publishes the document on the
web with a unique URL so that you can direct readers to it. Similar
options are available for Excel spreadsheets. And it's only a matter of
time before PowerPoint files receive the same treatment.

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