I just received my preview membership access for Buzzword from Virtual Ubiquity. Buzzword differs from other online word processors in that it largely uses Flash instead of relying exclusively on Ajax or Java. As a consequence, the UI has this great polished feel. It appears to have about the same size feature set as Google Docs, but because of the impressive Flash-based design, I can't help but feel like I'm using a more mature application.

Buzzword also allows for collaborative sharing of documents. What does seem to be lacking is version tracking. Without the ability to track and display changes, I don't think I'd choose this app over Google Docs for collaboration. But I'd give it serious consideration once they add that feature in.

What encouraged me to take a look at Buzzword was Ars Technica's announcement this past week that Adobe had purchased the Web 2.0 app. Is this a sign that Adobe is seriously entering the Web 2.0 online productivity application market?