Microsoft 'Docs' Document Sharing Platform Now Available to All

It's no secret that Microsoft is aggressively releasing new apps and services these days. The Redmond-based software giant has released dozens of new products over the past few months. Some are useful, while others, not as much. The latest addition to the list is Docs, a service that makes it easier to share documents with others. Do note that the company isn't launching Docs, but relaunching it (in a public beta).

For those who aren't familiar with Docs.com, it is a service that aims to make sharing documents easier while also preserving source formatting. The service supports Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, and Sway among other Office-supported files, and offers importing features to quickly fetch documents from your PC, or other Microsoft services such as OneDrive. Users can also comment and download documents, but cannot collaborate.

Microsoft first launched Docs in 2010, but the service seemingly never got much traction. At one point, it was called Docs for Facebook and carried Microsoft Fuse Labs as its developers name, apart from using Facebook as the sharing medium. That service has since moved to fb.docs.com. The new version seems to be developed from scratch and is being relaunched with several new features, and no longer uses Facebook for sharing. One such enticing feature is its ability to embed all kinds of documents into a Web page. It uses popular commenting platform Disqus for comments.

Among other features, Docs lets you quickly share files to any social network and also gives you access to stats like how many times your files have been viewed and downloaded. Myce reports the service was in private beta since March, and has entered public beta only now.

Microsoft is yet to announce the relaunch of Docs, and until it does, there is no official word on how much the company plans to charge for using the service. The service is accessible to anyone with a Microsoft account. Considering we were able to sign in with our Outlook account and do a number of operations without any issue, there is a good chance that Docs would be available for free.