Writely is a Google owned service, which offers users web based word processor. While it may not replace Microsoft Word completely, it does offer a lexible online alternative. Plus it is free. If you do not require heavy formatting features and have steady internet connection then Writely may be a good choice for many of you considering other benefits it provides.

By using Writely users get following:

• Ability to share documents and collaborate on them real time with other people (coworkers,assignment partners).
• Decide who can access/edit documents.
• Ability to edit documents from anywhere.
• Active (open) documents are stored securely online and backed up every 10 seconds.
• Upload existing documents from most popular file formats(incl. Word).
• Either upload documents individually or email several of them into writely at once.
• Good features for organizing documents(tags,stars)
• Ability to see who and when edited document and what changes were made.
• User can roll back from current to the previous versions.
• Documents can be downloaded to the PC.
• Dcouments can be saved as PDF, RTF, ODT or DOC(word format).
• Documents can be published online as webpages either for public viewing or for group of selected people.

Visit Writely Tour for more information. As you can see it is a very handy application for a someone who needs to cooperate with others on some documents. Or for someone who needs to be able to have an easy online access to his/her documents with a possibility to edit them. Signup process is fast and requires only an email. If you already have a gmail account then there is no need to register since it’s possible to sign with yout current details.

Some other websites that provide similar services are; Thinkfree (word,+spreadsheet,+presentation), Writeboard (web based text document), Zoho (Word,+speadsheet,+presentation). On August 11′th, Cnet reviewed popular word processors and writely came on top with the rating 7.5 out of 10.