Interesting how it seems like MS may have been right this time? They were able to milk Office for years, and despite seeming like it might, Google didn't eat their lunch.

People still email word docs around. It’s nuts. Maybe Exchange is smart enough to intercept them and say “hey use this online one instead”? At least for intra-org..

I think the ability to actually email the docs around is half the value proposition. Having to always refer back to the cloud versions is annoying as hell when you're not actually collaborating, just showing someone a thing.

I email Word docs around. It’s like low-tech version control - I know exactly what was in the doc, and can recover it easily.

You are right - that's the feature!

Plus it's point in time - I'm sending you the document as it is now, and I might start cutting it about or changing it after to send to someone else, but this the version I want to send you.

More like the Acquirer's dilemma.

Google Analytics - acquired 2004, renamed from Urchin Analytics

Google Docs - acquired 2004, renamed from Writely

Youtube - acquired 2005

Android - acquired, 2005 (Samsung have done more to advance the OS than Google themselves)