Google Buys Maker of Writely Program

Google Inc. has bought the maker of Writely, an online word processing program that gives the search engine leader another potential weapon in its escalating battle with Microsoft Corp.

The acquisition of Upstartle, disclosed Thursday on Google’s website, continues the Mountain View, Calif.-based company’s effort to assemble a suite of software applications that are tethered to an Internet connection instead of a single computer’s hard drive.

Google didn’t reveal how much it paid for Upstartle. Google said last week that it had been buying high-tech start-ups to deepen its product line as well as its pool of engineering talent.

Writely allows users to share documents online so people in different locations can write and edit them together.