Adobe's All A Buzz About Buzzword

The lines between web and desktop are being blurred even more in what can be dubbed WebTop. Adobe today announced, as part of its bid for all things Web 2.0, its planned acquisition of Virtual Ubiquity, the maker of the online word processor, Buzzword. In an official statement, the company said that the "acquisition furthers Adobe's commitment to foster a vibrant ecosystem for rich Internet application (RIA) development that delivers breakthrough experiences built on Adobe AIR."

Running on Adobe® AIR™, Buzzword offers users a hybrid online/offline experience and the ability to work with both hosted and local documents. The collaboration capabilities in Buzzword enable multiple authors to edit and comment on documents from anywhere, at anytime, while document creators can set permissions that virtually eliminate version control chaos. There are reported drawbacks such as speed and lack of link support (a big oops for anything claiming online capabilities).

Adobe also added a new free file sharing service to its online doc services codenamed "Share" intended to allows people to share, publish, and organize documents online. Developers can create mash-ups with their applications, including storing and accessing files, as well as creating thumbnails and Flash-based previews of documents. For more things Adobe, visit the Adobe Labs site.