WebOffice can’t be done? Oh yes it can.

David Berlind has an interesting piece over at ZDNet on the whole Web 2.0, Web Office scenario / debate / furore / Microsoft anxiety-generator. The WebOffice can be done because it’s already all but up and running, he says. As for the “naysayers”,

Tell that to the on-line word processing folks at Writely.com or gOffice.com [whose] home page tells an interesting story with phrases like “Word Processing,” “Desktop Publishing,” “Import any text,” “Limitless storage” (I’ll bet they take care of backing it up too), “PDF document files” (thanks to PDF’s openness relative to Microsoft Office XML Reference Schema), “Presentations,” and “Spreadsheets” (the last two are clearly statements of intention since they’re not activated yet). Oh yeah, the upper right hand corner of gOffice.com’s Web page says Free Web Office Suite.

When will the Office Eldorado arrive? It’s out there now if you’re prepared to mash it up. Soon, even that will be done for you. Google is the best bet to hit the ground running, but Microsoft is in the game now, and could simply acquire the means to challenge its competitors in the short term. This race is too close to call.

[Via ZDNet]