While word-processing in the cloud may not be taking off for everyone just yet, it's hard to ignore the power of online document collaboration.

Wiki-style, in-the-browser document collaboration is an excellent way to have multiple people in different locations edit a single document, without the need to email attachments back and forth.

Here are a four worthy services currently offering this type of collaboration:

• Google Docs
• Box.net
• Adobe Buzzword
• Zoho Writer

All of these services have a free account option that can be used to create and collaborate on documents. Some of the editors are more powerful than others, including features such as allowing you to import and export as various formats, designate viewer/collaborator roles, view document revision history, and publish documents directly to the web.

Google Docs

Google Docs is the premiere choice, due to the popularity and ease of use of Google's products, as well as the name recognition.

Sharing documents (as well as spreadsheets and slide presentations) requires all collaborators to have a Google account so they can see their shared documents under their own docs.google.com interface:

There's not much Google Docs can't do, and new updates and features are added consistently.

Box.net

Box.net recently launched a new service that allows easy word-processing collaboration amongst several Box.net users. Dubbed "Web Documents" (see related blog post), Box users simply create a new document and share it with anyone. Collaborators must have their own Box.net account as well (free accounts are available).

Adobe Buzzword

Adobe's suite of web products available at Acrobat.com includes "Buzzword," which is a powerful, Flash-based document editor. Sharing documents is as simple as supplying email addresses of each collaborator.

Each collaborator needs their own Acrobat.com account, which is also free.

Zoho Writer

Zoho has an impressive collection of useful web applications, namely their online word-processing app, Writer. Collaboration also involves sending invites to other Zoho users, or individual email addresses (separate accounts have to be created in order to collaborate on Zoho documents).

Wrap-up

With the plethora of choices currently available for "in the cloud" document collaboration, you can forever forget about emailing document attachments back and forth, and the maintenance associated with all that.