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The future of web processing is buzzword.

My friend Pach wrote his final papers (something like 2000 pages in all) for his masters degree in Philosophy in Google Docs. It has everything academics need for papers. It even has some features like versioning and backup that are difficult or non-existent on off-line word processors (Microsoft Word). The big drawback with Google Docs and similar software is layout - quite simply making it look the way you want it to. I tried out some software that may solve that problem.

I met a guy named Roberto Mateu, who is working as an intern for Virtual Ubiquity, the company that makes Buzzword. Some of the people behind Buzzword have been doing productivity apps for as long as there were computers (Lotus). Roberto was able to snag me a preview of the application.

The first thing you notice about Buzzword is how nice it looks. The developers used a grey theme. This brings the focus on to the white page, and what you’re writing. The other UI element is the menu bar. It’s hard to show in pictures but Virtual Ubiquity went with sliding menus. You click on the area in which you’re interested and all the options are displayed. This is similar to Microsoft’s ribbon interface in Office 2007. Buzzword has fewer features than Word 2007, so naturally the interface is lacking the confusion and clutter of Word.

Another nice thing about buzzword is the anti-aliasing on the text. This makes it really easy to read. The way buzzword handles wrapping around images is pretty cool too. Basically, you add an image from your desktop and dump it in the document. You can then drag it around and the text will automatically wrap. This is something tough to do in a non-flash (AIR) based word processor. Being visually stunning and good at layout are minor features for success. If buzzword wants to make a dent in this market, they either need to be acquired by a larger player or acquire spreadsheet and presentation technology to provide a suite of integrated tools.

What’s exciting about buzzword is they are building on Adobe’s AIR platform. They are on the cutting edge of online apps. To update existing apps to do what buzzword can do easily would most likely require a total rewrite! Keep your eyes peeled on their site for a public beta

More shots:

Visual comparison to leading platform specific word processors

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