The new tool comes after Google in November launched a Chrome extension that lets you launch certain desktop apps, like Adobe Photoshop, right from Google Drive.
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A Google blog post today announced a downloadable plug-in for Google Drive that brings direct compatibility with the stalwart productivity suite. Microsoft Office has the ability to work with plugins of all sorts, even those made by Google, so a Google Drive plugin made by Google is certainly fair game.
You could, of course, always use Google’s desktop application for Drive to sync locally stored files with Google Drive already, but this new feature makes this a far more integrated experience for Office Users. For example, it doesn’t seem to be working with the preview of Word 2016, Word Mobile or on any version of Word on Windows 10.
Users have given the release a mixed reception, some claiming that the feature is already possible within Google Drive, or that rival services such as Dropbox enable similar work.
Microsoft Office, in particular, has been extending its reach through a bevy of cloud integrations in the past year.
Mountain View’s move makes it the latest company to embrace Microsoft’s open mindedness when allowing Office to be used on platforms outside its own ecosystem.
The Microsoft Office Google Drive plugin is now only available for Windows but provides an easy way for users to edit Office files stored in Google Drive.
There’s an interesting bit of speculation making the rounds about recent activity between Microsoft and Google.
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Meanwhile, Microsoft is concentrating on the arrival of its Office 365 channels for the popular IFTTT webmash platform.
