Google buys JotSpot

Google has done it yet once again!

After having completed the acquisition of YouTube, Google has gone out and added another interesting acquisition to its kitty encroaching a territory dominated by Microsoft Corp till now.

The new acquisition is JotSpot, a Silicon Valley start-up that has virtually pioneered the market for collaborative business software like online spreadsheets.

Three-year-old JotSpot had developed a series of online productivity software programs that offer many of the functions of Microsoft Office programs like Microsoft Word or Excel spreadsheets. But instead of running on individual computers, JotSpot applications are delivered as Web-based services.

Following the lead of companies like JotSpot, Mountain View, California-based Google entered the market this year by acquiring the Writely word processor and introducing other Web-based applications such as Google Spreadsheets and Google Calendar.

JotSpot's programs run on collaborative wiki software, a flexible form of Web publishing for groups that allows any approved user to edit or change individual documents. The idea for JotSpot grew out of using a wiki to brainstorm about potential ideas for founding a company, Kraus recalled.

JotSpot has attracted 2,000 companies to use its software. It counts 30,000 paying customers and about 300,000 free users of its Web software tools. Kraus said his company would continue to support existing customers during the transition.

With this new acquisition, Google has strengthened its portfolio yet again and has dded to the headaches to Yahoo and MSN! What do you say, fellas? ;-)





Tags: Google, YouTube, JotSpot, Wiki, Microsoft, Yahoo, MSN, Business, Technology