Google has become one of 240 members involved in the ODF Alliance, an organization designed to promote the adoption of OpenDocument, a new open source standard for electronic documents. Google's Writely online word processor already supports ODF files.

Analysts say the move bolsters ODF's position in the marketplace, assuming Google can find ways to use the format in its products. Microsoft recently announced it would support OpenDocument as well in Office 2007, but only through an add-in that converts to and from its own Open XML formats.