Remember when Google acquired Writely, the online word processor, way back when. Yeah, the little startup that was part of the buzz of online office applications. After acquiring the company, Google decided to limit registration to a select few testers. Today, however, the company has changed all that and Writely is now open for business. All you need is a steady Internet connection and willingness to work in an uncontrolled environment (the thought of Google accidentally erasing my online storage space scares me too much).

As long as you backup your data regularly (I wouldn’t trust Google with that), this should be a fun and rather productive experience. There’s no need for you to spend hundreds of dollars on Microsoft Office (or even download OpenOffice.org) anymore. Simply register, login and you are good to go.

According to a number of reviews, Writely is actually a pretty decent product, but Google is still ironing out some kinks, just keep that in mind when you are using it.

One of the key downsides I see is the lack of Internet connection in other countries. Sure, I think a good majority of us can find WiFi hotspots pretty much anywhere we go in much of North America and Europe, but there is an abundance of countries in Asia where WiFi is rare. I would hate to be the business executive looking to immediately send a document, but can’t because of no Internet connection.

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