mediajunk

Google has launched a new document editing system called Google Docs.

This is an extension of previous Rich Internet Application (RIA) offerings that allowed the user to create and edit documents and spreadsheets via a web browser.

With Google Docs, you can also import existing Microsoft Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, as well as their Open Office equivalents. You can edit the documents via the browser.

I can see myself using this as a way of reading and converting (if possible) Open Office documents - I currently do not have Open Office installed. I got sent an Open Office document recently and had to download a reader to view its contents. It worked, but was a bit clunky.

One of the advantages of RIAs such as these is that the user does not need to purchase or install software in order to start working.

For more advantages and disadvantages, see the Wikipedia entry for RIAs.