While higher-profile Web players such as Yahoo Inc., Ask.com and even Microsoft sit on the sidelines, a wave of mostly West-Coast-based startup companies are feverishly putting out Webified counterparts to Microsoft Word, Excel and others.

For word processing, upstarts include AjaxWrite from San Diego-based Ajax13; gOffice from SilverOffice Inc. in Berkeley, Calif.; Zoho Writer from Pleasanton, Calif.-based AdventNet Inc.; iNetWord from Kirkland, Wash.-based iNetOffice Inc.; and Google's own offering, which arose from its acquisition of Writely in March.

For spreadsheets, Office alternatives include WikiCalc, created by spreadsheet pioneer and VisiCalc creator Dan Bricklin; EditGrid from a Hong Kong-based company Teams and Concepts Ltd.; iRows from irows.com; AjaxXLS from Ajax13; and Dabble DB, from Vancouver, British Columbia-based startup Smallthought Systems Inc.

There are even online equivalents to PowerPoint, such as Thumbstacks.com, and an alternative to Microsoft's project management software: Project-On-Demand from San Mateo, Calif.-based Projity Inc.

Not only are the applications mostly free, but they let users easily collaborate and edit documents simultaneously, a key feature that historically has eluded Microsoft.