Google has bought Upstartle, the maker of Writely, an online word processing program. Writely functions a lot like Microsoft Word, with the difference being, it works in a web browser. The move clearly points to the company’s ongoing quest to challenge Microsoft.

Upstartle's Writely service, introduced seven months ago, allows its users to share documents on the Internet so people in different locations can write and edit them together. The free service isn't currently accepting new users. “To be clear, Writely is still in beta, and it's far from perfect. Upholding our great user experience means everything to us, so we're not accepting new registrations until we've moved Writely to Google's software architecture, “ said Google Writely team member Jen Mazzon on Google’s blogsite.

Wrtiely’s current users can keep using it as is. “…. we agree that the ability to share documents and collaborate is critical to Writely users, so we'll continue to allow existing users to add collaborators even as we temporarily stop accepting new sign-ups,” said Mazzon.

While it is not clear as to how much Google paid for Writely, the team at Writely seems ecstatic, and has posted 10 top reasons on its website about why being a part of Google is good for them.

Writely makes good use of the AJAX web technology, which involves pre-loading code into a browser to avoid the holdup of consulting a server.