Look out Word, here comes BuzzWord

Word is like the weather. Everybody complains about it, but nobody ever does anything about it. Until now.

Table editing may be the killer feature of this appBoston startup Virtual Ubiquity is building a product called BuzzWord that they are calling "the first real word processor for the web." Of course, they talk about the collaboration features enabled by the web. And the fact that they plan to move to Adobe's Apollo technology later this year will ensure you can work on your documents even when you more offline.

Text wrapping is needlessly complicated in Word, simple hereWhat differentiates BuzzWord from Google docs and other attempts at online productivity apps, though, is usability. The AJAX interfaces of these tools hurt usability. But BuzzWord is actually easier to use than Word for a number of common tasks like flowing text around pictures, table formatting, and commenting.

Inserted comments are much cleaner as wellI'd take BuzzWord for the clean and simple toolbar alone, but BuzzWord addresses a lot of more specific frustrations with Word. Inserting new columns or rows into a table without making a trip to the toolbar would save me time almost every day. And why is it that Word always inserts a new graphic inline, hiding 90% of it until you dig down a few menus to format it properly? If they find a way to make text styles and outlines less of a wresting match, I think I'll be in love.

Comments

[Bruce McCarthy]

Virtual Ubiquity put a quote from this post on their press coverage page. Cool.

http://www.virtub.com/buzz.html

[Ioannus de Verani]

I received an invite to BuzzWord from VB, and I think that it is really neat!

Check out my review here: http://blog.verani.net/2007/05/virtual-ubiquity-buzzword-soon-to-be.html

To get an invite to BuzzWord, click on my name!