Adobe Declares War On Microsoft Live, Google Docs

The San Jose, Calif.-based software maker on Monday launched its most ambitious Web-based offering to date: Acrobat.com, a suite of interactive, productivity tools that combine document creation, sharing, white boarding and A/V communications in one, mostly neat package.

Acrobat.com doesn't do everything that Microsoft or Google do with office productivity applications online. But it also goes where the two giants haven't yet ventured: wholesale integration of live, online communications and collaboration in a single, free, Web-based account.

In the Test Center's first look at Acrobat.com, it became clear that Adobe is aiming for the stars. There are a number of bugs and performance issues that still remain the beta version of Acrobat.com, but they take a back seat to the stunning functionality Adobe has woven together.

Our first look:

Acrobat.com's Web conferencing is called ConnectNow. Not surprisingly, ConnectNow is riding on the laurels of Adobe's enterprise Web conferencing Breeze product. Like Breeze, ConnectNow supports screen sharing and white boarding.

ConnectNow supports live collaboration by allowing up to four users to connect simultaneously. Sharing and feature setup is quite intuitive. Here, Adobe did a nice job. Users can quickly share their desktops and allow full access to document editing. In addition, ConnectNow arrives with a chat client and a plugin for Web cams as well as support for microphone-based audio communication so users can talk to those with whom they are working.

ConnectNow was slow when the Test Center tested it in the lab -- but not slow enough to frustrate reviewers. The Test Center was able to share Word documents in real time using the application.

While there's no real time co-editing, the sharing capabilities are the next best thing because users can take advantage of local access and can save locally as well.

A noteworthy item: after keeping the session opened without anyone to share it with for 20 minutes, ConnectNow forces users to close the connection.

And then there's the second leg of the stool: Buzzword.

Acrobat.com's arrives with a simple WYSIWYG editor, called Buzzword. By no means can the editor measure up to Microsoft Word but it can certainly compete with Google Docs at some point. In the beta testing stage, though, Buzzword could easily be mocked as "Buzzkill." It crashed on us a couple of times out of the gate.

We encountered one error in Buzzword when attempting to open Settings and Preferences. Apparently, the error occurs when Buzzword fails to contact the server and cannot find the name of the user. The error did not stop the session or close the browser. We were able to stop and close the error and continue opening the preferences.

However, Buzzword is designed to work locally, so if a connection is not established with Acrobat.com users will only able to work in the editor with an open session. As long as service is unavailable, users will not be able to start new documents. This is a bug that needs fixing.

Buzzword features that work like a charm:

- strike through; - adding word lists -- there are words that override the spell checker; - Inserting tables -- table fields can accept images; - Adding images and custom characters; - Inserting notes -- users can add notes to document lines as they type. A notes icon tracks every line that's typed.

Buzzword features that are still buggy:

- Spelling -- the spell checker is limited. Transferring documents from Microsoft Word to Buzzword is a real eye opener.

The Test Center's wish list:

The server side features like Import and Save need to work offline. Buzzword loads application components so that these features can work locally. The problem is that they require constant network access.

Because the Acrobat.com application runs out of a single Flash runtime, users can have multiple browser instances open and view changes on all instances in real time. While this is a cool feature, users cannot jump between features while running the same application. We would like to have that option.

The Bottom Line: Adobe is extending one of its core technologies, Flash, to the Software-as-a-Service realm and, in so doing, is poised to catch up very quickly to Microsoft and Google in the online productivity space. It's an aggressive move and, frankly, a welcome one that will only ratchet up the competition and provide solution providers with better options for customers who can find value in Web-based collaboration and productivity. If Adobe irons out Acrobat.com's wrinkles, it will be a player to be reckoned with.