14 July 2009 | Author: Katie Todd
In the world of the web, you have to go to great lengths to stay on top of the game - and sometimes that involves fighting fire with fire. It's been three years since Google's online Docs application first became available and it looks like, finally, Microsoft has decided to throw it some competition.
Not content with challenging Google with new decision engine Bing - as well as scooping the top spot when it comes to trends-spotting, Microsoft is continuing its surround-and-conquer strategy and picking apart another of the Mountain View giant's offerings.
This move, however, looks like it could be a huge kick in the teeth for Google. Microsoft, famous for its immensely popular Microsoft Office suite, which includes the likes of Word, PowerPoint and Excel, will be releasing a lightweight version of Office 10 online when it launches next year - available free.
Although this could deal a tremendous blow to Microsoft's overwhelming Office revenue intake, the web-based Office 10 could prove to be a huge hit. After all, millions of web and PC users worldwide utilise a version of Office already, and continual improvements to the service - which has the added benefit of being web-based, thus storing data on a cloud server and ensuring incredibly speedy loading times - are a tempting pull.
The move could also serve to help Microsoft to swipe users from Google, with some possibly choosing to migrate from Google Docs to Microsoft's well-known software.
Microsoft claimed that the reason it had taken so long to implement a free, online version of its wares was that it wanted to get the service just right. According to the BBC, Microsoft's group product manager for Office, Chris Bryant, said: "[Our users] want the power of the web without compromise. They want collaboration without compromise.
"And what they tell us today is that going to the web often means they sacrifice fidelity, functionality and the quality of the content they care about. We knew that if and when we were ever going to bring applications into a web environment, we needed to do the hard work first because we hold such a high bar."
So with a free Office on the horizon, the claws have been re-sharpened and are aimed at Google once again. However, the Mountain View lion is doing anything but sitting on its haunches - Google did, of course, also announce that it would be releasing its very own operating system set to take on Microsoft's global staple OS, Windows.
It appears that in some ways that Google and Microsoft are just circling each other, taking swipes at the very things each company holds dear to its foundations - we can only hope that what with Microsoft aiming for Google's search engine windpipe and Google, similarly, kicking Microsoft in the OS, they'll both remain true to their original wares and maintain the high standards that made them so popular in the first place.
Microsoft offers Office online
In the world of the web, you have to go to great lengths to stay on top of the game - and sometimes that involves fighting fire with fire. It's been three years since Google's online Docs application first became available and it looks like, finally, Microsoft has decided to throw it some competition.Not content with challenging Google with new decision engine Bing - as well as scooping the top spot when it comes to trends-spotting, Microsoft is continuing its surround-and-conquer strategy and picking apart another of the Mountain View giant's offerings.
This move, however, looks like it could be a huge kick in the teeth for Google. Microsoft, famous for its immensely popular Microsoft Office suite, which includes the likes of Word, PowerPoint and Excel, will be releasing a lightweight version of Office 10 online when it launches next year - available free.
Although this could deal a tremendous blow to Microsoft's overwhelming Office revenue intake, the web-based Office 10 could prove to be a huge hit. After all, millions of web and PC users worldwide utilise a version of Office already, and continual improvements to the service - which has the added benefit of being web-based, thus storing data on a cloud server and ensuring incredibly speedy loading times - are a tempting pull.
The move could also serve to help Microsoft to swipe users from Google, with some possibly choosing to migrate from Google Docs to Microsoft's well-known software.
Microsoft claimed that the reason it had taken so long to implement a free, online version of its wares was that it wanted to get the service just right. According to the BBC, Microsoft's group product manager for Office, Chris Bryant, said: "[Our users] want the power of the web without compromise. They want collaboration without compromise.
"And what they tell us today is that going to the web often means they sacrifice fidelity, functionality and the quality of the content they care about. We knew that if and when we were ever going to bring applications into a web environment, we needed to do the hard work first because we hold such a high bar."
So with a free Office on the horizon, the claws have been re-sharpened and are aimed at Google once again. However, the Mountain View lion is doing anything but sitting on its haunches - Google did, of course, also announce that it would be releasing its very own operating system set to take on Microsoft's global staple OS, Windows.
It appears that in some ways that Google and Microsoft are just circling each other, taking swipes at the very things each company holds dear to its foundations - we can only hope that what with Microsoft aiming for Google's search engine windpipe and Google, similarly, kicking Microsoft in the OS, they'll both remain true to their original wares and maintain the high standards that made them so popular in the first place.
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