Microsoft and Adobe have joined Google in offering a word processor that can be used without installing any software.

Microsoft unveiled its Live Workspace service on Monday, which offers online storage and the ability to access and edit documents.

The service, which requires access to Microsoft Office, is slated for availability later this year and is currently accepting pre-registrations for a future beta.

Live Workspace allows Microsoft to compete with Google Docs, which offers an online text editor, spreadsheet and presentation tool.

Although the Google service lacks many of the advanced features found in Microsoft Office, it offers basic text editing and document creation and allows for collaboration.

Microsoft also plans to introduce hosted versions of some of its professional applications, such as Exchange and SharePoint, under its new Online brand.

Microsoft Online target organisations with more advanced IT needs, whereas the Live brand, which includes Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail, is intended for individual users.

Google can expect additional competition in the hosted productivity suite space after Adobe revealed on Monday that it had acquired Virtual Ubiquity, developer of the Buzzword application.

The service is built for the Adobe Integrated Runtime (Air) that aims to establish a standard platform for running internet applications.

Although Air applications are delivered over a network, they function with and without an internet connection. The technology uses existing internet programming techniques such as HTML, Ajax and Flash.

The major set-back to Air is that users are required to download and install the runtime engine the first time that they want to run an Air service. Ajax and Java applications typically run without any user intervention.