Microsoft And Facebook Working On Ousting Google Docs

Today, the f8 conference is going on, and already there's a shockwave felt from the conversations therein. More than likely you've used one of the many services available to you from Google Docs, the online document creating service brought to you by Google. They've actually just updated their service, too. But, it looks like Microsoft wants to jump into the whole cloud-based-document-creating-game, because Microsoft's FUSE labs and Facebook have collaborated to bring the world Docs.com.

So, what's the big deal? Well, with the connection to Facebook, Docs.com works as a social networking tool just as much as an online document creation tool. Docs.com connects directly to your Facebook profile, and you'll be able to share documents with your Facebook friends, collaboratively edit what you create, and sneak a peek at the documents that your friends have created on their own time. Users can choose to make their created documents public or private. Additionally, right on your Facebook page you can add a new tab that will list all the documents you've shared with your profile.

Additionally, while you can upload Microsoft Office and other text documents to Google Docs, Docs.com is integrated with not only Facebook, but also Microsoft Word, and the full Office suite. The sharing capabilities are a bit expanded, obviously, as the scope of Facebook has been fused with the entire effort. But, it doesn't take a blind man to see that this is a direct attack at Google, and the services they provide. It will take some major effort from Microsoft to get Docs.com where it needs to be to compete with Google Docs, especially considering the major lead Google's service has in the market. But, Microsoft has tried crazier things, and there's nothing hurting the Redmond-based company by having Facebook helping out. As of right now it's still in a closed Beta, but you can sign up at the site and be notified as to when you can test it out for yourself.

[via Docs]