Microsoft & Facebook Launch Docs.com

Microsoft and Facebook recently announced beta release of Docs.com, an online document viewer and editor which is integrated with Facebook. With docs.com you can upload, create, and edit documents using the web application, and Facebook integration allows you to share your documents with friends, work collaboratively on documents, and discover documents shared by your friends.

Microsoft already has Office Live – a document sharing and viewing platform, and has also recently launched beta version of MS Office Web Apps that comes along with Office 2010 Beta – this allows you to access, edit, and share your documents (MS Word, PowerPoint, & Excel) through the web application.

All these platforms store files on the cloud. MS Office Web Apps does also give option of installing the platform on enterprise servers.

With all this activity on web apps and cloud, the thinking in Redmond clearly seems to be-

1. Web Apps hosted in cloud is where action is rapidly shifting to
2. Enterprises would continue to manage sensitive data on their own infrastructure (for now atleast)
3. Users on social platforms want to/are ready to share and discuss more than just pictures, and videos

I am however curious to find out what kind of content actually gets shared on docs.com, as that would also be an indicator of whether users are ready to consume productivity enhancement content via social platforms, or if they are there just to connect with friends.

Would you use Docs.com (I am there on it, but like many others waiting for my activation code)? What would you share (How To’s, Product Manuals, Knowledge Bytes, Newsletters, Course-ware)?