Facebook Docs: Facebook gets its own version of Microsoft Web Office

One of the big announcements at Facebook's f8 developer conference was Facebook Docs, a Facebook-powered version of Microsoft Web Office. Facebook Docs will let users create, upload and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, right on Facebook. It was created in collaboration with Microsoft's Fuse Labs, and the uploading system was based on Facebook's existing Photos app. Your docs are social objects on Facebook, so they can be shared and commented on.

Basically, Facebook users get Microsoft web apps, and Microsoft gets ... a whole bunch of Facebook users. Since Microsoft's campaign to bring Office to the web means a head-to-head battle with Google Docs, I'm sure MS was thrilled to get a few hundred million extra users. Facebook users are valuable, too. Microsoft is doing fine in business environments, but the younger, student-heavy Facebook crowd offers an opportunity to snatch some users away from Google.

[via The Guardian]

Tags: docs, excel, facebook, facebook docs, FacebookDocs, microsoft, office, powerpoint, word