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Google Acquires Writely
From: www.writerswrite.com

" Google has announced that it has purchased the company that makes Writely, the Web-based word processing system. PC Magazine discusses the purchase:

Writely is, simply put, a word processor embedded into a Web browser. It's still in a nascent beta form and is no longer freely distributed; "it's far from perfect," Jen Mazzon writes in her newly revealed role as a member of the Google Writely team.

Despite the drawbacks, it apparently fits perfectly into Google's plans. While better known for its consumer search engine, Google is mounting a significant effort to win over office computer desktops. Its earlier release of a Google Pack of online features, and a deal with Sun Microsystems to deliver the digitized goods was a step in this direction.

In order to battle office software king Microsoft, Google needs to fatten its array of business class offerings to fill glaring holes, such as a day planner. Another missing staple is a word processing program. Writely, made by Upstartle, could fit the bill. "If a decent spreadsheet/database/presentation program goes to Google, this could undermine some of Microsoft's Office revenue," said one industry insider who asked to be unnamed. Google's latest purchase is in line with its preferred means of delivering its software and services over the Internet, rather than selling it on compact disks, writes Om Malik, the analyst who first reported on the pending buy.

The drawback to this approach, though, is that lots of material has to be stored on Google's network of servers. "Convincing the masses that their documents will be safe, especially with all that has been going on lately, may be quite challenging, even if it's FREE!," Malik adds.

Larry McMurtry, co-writer of Brokeback Mountain , thinks the urban drama Crash beat out his film for best picture because Academy members discriminate against rural stories. According to contactmusic.com , the writer was involved with four Oscar nominated films including The Last Picture Show and Terms of Endearment. He feels Crash won because it was set in Los Angeles, where most of the Academy voters live.

He says: "The three rural films, I was involved with, lost. The one urban film Terms of Endearment won. Members of the Academy are mostly urban people. Crash was a hometown movie.

Of his film's critical and popular success, Mr. Haggis said the current political climate ? particularly in the United States ? played a part in its finding an audience. "We're in a time of war here, and you either go one or two directions,: he said. "You head off and escape, or you start talking about questions, and all of the terrific films this year asked important questions about who we are, and I guess that's what we were trying to do, as well."

Still, he said, at the start of the process, he was doubtful that Crash, given its difficult subject matter, would get made at all. The same went for last year's boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, for which he also received a screenwriting nomination. "Who would want to see that?" he said of Crash, with its themes of racial strife, fear and intolerance. "I thought that my grandchildren would read the scripts, and go 'Look, grandpa tried to get in the movies, isn't that cute,' and that's the end of it."

*****

Mr. Haggis studied cinematography at Fanshawe College in London, Ont. He moved, at age 22, to Los Angeles with his first wife in the late 1970s, and wrote for U.S. shows, including The Love Boat, Who's the Boss?, Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life. His trophy shelf includes Emmys for his work on thirtysomething and Geminis for the Alliance Atlantis/CBS Mountie drama Due South. Mr. Haggis has said in previous interviews that he got the idea for the screenplay after he and his wife were carjacked in the early 1990s.

Janice Erlbaum, whose memoir of her life as a homeless teen, Girlbomb, has just been published by Villard, says she had "an extensive legal review with the Random House legal department, but I don't think they followed up." "They asked me a lot of questions like, 'What were the dates that this happened?' They really wanted to know who was who. I don't think they did any independent verification, but they certainly did ask me about every person and every detail in the book."

*****

Cupcake Brown, whose A Piece of Cake, a memoir of substance abuse and gangbanging, is also new to stores, hired a private investigator to help get facts right. "I wanted to be as honest and truthful as possible and have as much factual background and backup and evidence as possible ? way before Frey. Every memoirist should do that."

Jenny Frost, president of Crown, Brown's publisher, says Crown didn't fact-check Brown but says of life after Frey: "I would like to think that we've always been intelligent about our authors and good judges of character. Certainly, in Cupcake's case, that's how we feel." But, she adds, "we'll never be quite as innocent as we were before."

The expansion of AOL's video service, which will combine free and pay-per-download shows from established programmers and user-created video clips, aims to address complaints about the rigid pricing structure and the mix of available programing on iTunes.

It also puts the Dulles, Virginia unit in competition with Yahoo Inc., which this week said it planned to scale back on creating original programing, and Google Inc..

The service will sell Time Warner-owned shows and those created by other programmers and networks, the company said, declining to name partners.

"We've been in discussion for months with every major cable and broadcast network," Kevin Conroy, executive vice president of AOL Media Networks told Reuters.

The site has struck its first formal partnership to obtain copyrighted content with MTV2, a cable channel overseen by Viacom's MTV Networks, a spokesman confirmed. YouTube has drawn sharp criticism from broadcasters for allowing its users to upload pirated programming from the airwaves without permission. MTV2 is seeding YouTube.com with multiminute clips from a pair of series promoting new seasons and DVD releases this month: "The Andy Milonakis Show" and "Wonder Showzen."