Writely, Freely

Good news: Writely, the browser-based word processor which Google acquired back in March, is once again accepting new users. (Until now, the Google-owned Writely was available only to folks who'd signed up in its independent days.)

Writely, which is still a beta, is one of the very best of the new breed of browser-based productivity tools. It ain't Microsoft Word, and that's a pro, not a con--it's a lightweight, easy to use word processor that puts all your documents online and has some nifty collaboration tools.

Along with the interesting-but-still-rudimentary Google Spreadsheet, Writely makes up a sort of proto-Google Suite. As with a lot of what Google does, it's not entirely clear that it''ll have the patience to keep with these tools until they're fully fleshed out. But Writely is handy right now, and at the moment--I'm working on a story about Web-based productivity software--I'm using it as my primary word processor, with mostly good results. (I am, however, still hunting for a Web presentations tool that can even sort of fill in for PowerPoint--Thumbstacks and Zoho Show show glimmers of promise, but aren't there yet...)