Microsoft unveiled on April 21 a beta of a new application, known as
Microsoft Docs, that is a version of Office Web Apps tailored for Facebook users.
Office Web Apps is the Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that Microsoft is releasing as part of Office 2010. Docs — a project from
Microsoft’s recently created FUSE Labs — is built on top of Office 2010.
FUSE Labs Director Lili Cheng explained Docs this way on the project’s site: “(T)he Docs app enables Facebook users for the first time to
create and share Microsoft
Office documents directly with their Facebook friends, using the Office tools they already know.”
Docs builds on “a new test feature from Facebook” and
the new Facebook platform outlined by Facebook at the f8 conference today. Cheng doesn’t say a whole lot about that new Facebook feature, but does say it “allows us to build an instantly personalized and seamless document authorization & sharing experience directly from our site.”