14 DAY TRIAL // Following Microsoft's shift on the matter of ODF, Google, through its recently acquired online word processor Writley, has announced that it too will provide support for the Open Document Format. The Mountain View company will promote the option of interoperability among word processing platforms regardless of the source application of a document, ultimately benefiting the end user through increased work flow flexibility. With Writley support for ODF, Google joined this week the momentum of the OpenDocument Format Alliance that as of now, numbers more than 240 members. Google has not reveled so far if it will implement ODF support in its recently launched Spreadsheet application.
"Google is a major player obviously and a tremendous boost to the alliance," which launched with just 36 members in March, said Marino Marcich, managing director of the ODF. "It demonstrates the depth and growing support behind the ODF.
"When a company like Google puts its name behind any effort to promote OpenDocument Format it's a sign that it is not just a technology on the move, but one that is arriving very rapidly," said Will Rodger, director of public policy at the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA). "If Google includes ODF support in Google Spreadsheets and finds a role for ODF in Gmail then you're talking about a significant number of users who will be using and creating documents in that format."
Heavy names like IBM and Sun Microsystems along with governments in Europe (Denmark and Belgium) and governmental representatives from the US have long backed the XML-based OpenDocument Format. Google will add to their efforts its presence on the global market.