It's been a short courtship. Google acquired Writely in March. Google Spreadsheets emerged from Google Labs in June. After just a few months of corporate cohabitation, the two applications have gotten hitched.
The software is currently in beta, available for free and open to sign-ups now.
Google hopes that integrating the two applications will make online document sharing and collaboration easier.
The application merger reflects Google's recent effort "to develop features rather than more products," as a Google spokeswoman put it.
Over the summer, Google co-founder Sergey Brin began pushing an initiative called "Features, not products," according to an Oct. 6 article in the Los Angeles Times, to simplify what has become a confusing collection of services.
That article also reported that Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Google Calendar will join the company's word processing and spreadsheet programs in a single productivity suite.
Asked about this, the spokeswoman replied, "Regarding Google Calendar, we don't have anything to announce at this time."
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