It was only time before Writely clones would start coming up. So ajaxWrite is not really much of a surprise. What the surprise really is, that instead of re-inventing, or even repeating the wheel ... this application actually backtracks into the past, and comes up way short of what others are doing. I know it is just a startup, and I might be being a little too harsh. But hey, Writely was a startup too, wasn't it?

Straight from Om Malik's post:

In an email, Michael Robertson writes:

Remember all the ridiculous hype over the Google/Sun partnership which turned out to be a big pile of vaporware? Google will never be able to take OpenOffice and cram it into an ajax program - won’t happen. CAN’T happen. It’s like trying to turn a semi truck into a hybrid.

Robertson is the founder of ajaxWrite. He apparently has good credentials, but my first contact with ajaxWrite doesn't impress me. The only way this application might catch on is because Writely has closed itself to signups at the moment (moving to Google servers), and people might want to try this new thing out. But thats only till people don't see and feel the Writely experience. Comparing Writely and ajaxWrite is like comparing Firefox/Opera and Internet Explorer 5. I am holding that big blow out against Google to heart here, because as far as I can see, Writely is way ahead in design, functionality, resources and as soon as its open to signups again, userbase! ajaxWrite doesn't even have proper ads or anything around the page, so I really don't see how its going to be making money, which is the point Om has picked up too. Google has everything it needs to build the killer online office suite, and ajaxWrite is nowhere close. If you're going to copy something, atleast copy it to the maximum capabilities, if not more.

I am not keeping hopes (forget high ones) for ajaxWrite! Strike 1 Robertson!

the obvious difference

[UPDATE]: As Om Malik points out (here), ajaxWrite isn't an AJAX application at all. Its a XUL application. How convenient! :|