Free PDF conversion right on the web

The Writely web-based word processing program has just been equipped with the ability to convert documents according to Adobe Systems' format, while supporting OpenDocument and Rich Text Format.

Upstartle's Writely text editor (USA) acts as a website for saving, editing and sharing documents. Site facilitates people to post Microsoft Word documents and then convert to HTML.

" Users just need to find the 'Save as PDF' button (saved as PDF) in the editor ," said Claudia Carpenter, co-founder of Upstartle. She said that in the long run the company will charge for using Writely.

Currently Writely has about 70,000 users. " Although it was just released in August, we were close to 100,000 and the company hopes to attract 1 million subscribers by the end of this month, " Carpenter said.

Writely also supports OpenDocument, an open text processing standard backed by companies like IBM and Sun Microsystems.

Upstartle is one of the companies looking for a way to bring applications to the web, including Microsoft. Many of them use programming software to improve Ajax to bring the ability to interact and update data not possible in the previous generation of web services.

These small companies are being looked at by big guys like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Del.icio.us Del.icio.us, the bookmark sharing service (the directory containing the good web address), merged with Yahoo over the weekend for an undisclosed amount.