Adobe has made its intention clear to compete with Microsoft and Google in the Rich Internet Application (RIA) arena. It has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Virtual Ubiquity, the developer of Buzzword – an online word processing program used for on-the-fly document creation and collaboration.

Adobe said that despite the existence of some online word processing programs, the problems of collaborating on documents have not been completely solved.

Adobe’s director of marketing and product management, Eric Larson, told Internet News that “If you agree that people will be working together more online, then the question of barriers to working together comes up immediately. Being able to cross the barriers of different platforms, across firewalls and locations is critical.”

The collaboration capabilities in Buzzword allows multiple authors to edit and comment on documents from any Internet-connected computer, at anytime, while document creators can set permissions that virtually eliminate version control chaos.

The application also provides the same experience regardless of the connection status or platform used. It will work offline or online, on a desktop or in a browser, on Windows, Macintosh or Linux platform.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the acquisition is expected to be finalized in November.

In addition to Buzzword, Adobe has also released a beta version of its file sharing service. The “Share” service will allow users to store, share, grant access and organize documents online.

Microsoft for its part, has recently rolled out its own road map for new Office Live features, including the ability to store, share and comment on documents online.

With its Share and Buzzword offerings, Adobe will not only compete with Microsoft’s offerings, but also with those from Google, which is building its own Web-based office productivity suite for word processing, presentations and spreadsheets.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 7:29 am under Google, Microsoft.

Read more entries by Ruben Francia.
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