Google buys DocVerse

This could be the start of something big.

Google is widening its net by buying a company with software that makes it easy to share Office documents online.

Note that I said Office – as in Microsoft Office – documents.

The acquisition of DocVerse fires yet another shot across the SharePoint bow. Remains to be seen if it’ll amount to much, but the Googlies continue to surprise me.

What’s really happening with Windows 7’s new Windows Activation Technologies

Ed Bott has put the new Windows 7 Activation Technology patch, KB 971033, through the paces, and found it to be pretty much as advertised. If you were looking for a re-run of the old Windows Genuine Advantage/Spyware debacle, you won’t find it here. Ed says:

I installed the KB971033 update on multiple systems using both the downloaded version and the one delivered through Windows Update. I also uninstalled the update and observed what happened.

From a technical standpoint, I was able to confirm that the WAT update does what Microsoft says it does. I was not able to read the contents of the signed, encrypted packets going across the wire, but I did locate the stored information in the registry and compared it to Microsoft’s published privacy policy.

Ed’s ZDNet post reads a lot like something from the Windows Engineering blog – which is both a compliment and an, uh, observation. It’s clear to me that MS will be thrilled by Ed’s results, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if MS helped with the research. That said, I can’t find any fault with what he’s done: thorough, accurate, and surprisingly supportive of Microsoft.

Read it yourself and tell me if you disagree…

Office 2010 heads to the finish line

Jevon Fark just posted details about the roll-out of Office 2010.

Starting today, consumers who purchase and activate Office 2007 will be able to download Office 2010 at no additional cost when it becomes available in June 2010.

For businesses, we will launch the 2010 set of products, including Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010, and Project 2010 worldwide on May 12… For consumers, Office 2010 will be available online and on retail shelves this June.

I’m still lukewarm about Office 2010, just as I was (and am) lukewarm about Office 2007. There are some significant improvements, but to me it’s hard to justify spending big bucks to change from Office 2003.