Google is buying DocVerse to beef up its online suite of software that competes with Microsoft Office and Sharepoint.

DocVerse makes software that allows Office users to share documents online and allows multiple people edit a document without having to e-mail attachments back and forth.

"It works as a co-pilot of Microsoft Office," said Shan Sinha, co-founder of DocVerse, based in San Francisco, Calif. "It allows you to take advantage of web collaboration that is simple, seamless and brain-dead simple." The company has about 20 employees and will be moving to Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Jonathan Rochelle, a group product manager for Google Apps, said, "Initially it is very clear to us that the way that DocVerse is used today, it’s immediately useful." Rochelle said he did not have a timeline on when or how DocVerse's software will be integrated with Google Apps and Docs.

The addition of the feature would make Google's word processing, presentation and spreadsheet software a stronger competitor to Microsoft Office and Sharepoint, which allows co-workers to share Office documents. Microsoft is also launching a free Web-based competitor to Google Docs called Office Web Apps later of this year.

"SharePoint is a product that works well in a Microsoft fully centric organization and large organizations," Sinha said. "The new Office Web Apps are proucts that have not yet been released. We’ll see what happens when they actually do get released."

He declined to give any numbers about DocVerse's sales. The company had been licensing the software to business customers since October.

Earlier this week, Google bought Seattle company Picnik, a company that makes an online photo editing software. Rochelle said he could not answer whether Google plans to grow through acquisition. "I don’t think there is a strategy except to say we’re looking for great talent and great technology," he said.

Neither would say how much the deal was worth.

Here is our earlier story on the acquisition of Picnik.