Google buys online collaboration startup

"We are happy to announce that AppJet Inc. has been acquired by Google," AppJet said in a message at its website.

"The EtherPad team will continue its work on real-time collaboration by joining the Google Wave team."

EtherPad enables people at various computers to simultaneously edit documents shared online, with changes instantly reflected on all users' screens.

AppJet's EtherPad fits with Google's vision of an innovative Wave communications platform that liberates people from the constraints of traditional email.

In September Google began inviting people to test its Wave messaging platform that merges email, online chat, social networking and "wiki" style group access to Web pages or documents.

"We are still in a preview and it is still very buggy," Google Wave product manager Gregory D'Alesandre said last month at an Internet technology conference in San Francisco.

"There are a lot of features yet to be done."

With the Wave, email or instant messages blossom into shared online arenas where anyone in the exchange can edit documents, add digital content, or comment at any time.

AppJet launched in December of 2007, and three members of the startup's five-person team are former Google employees.

The purchase price was not disclosed, but unconfirmed online reports place the figure around 10 million dollars (US).

(c) 2009 AFP