Free Version of Microsoft Office to Be Available Online

Summary: Experts on Monday said that Microsoft is now competing with Google with the release of its Office suite, which will be available online staring next year.

Experts also said that the computer giant’s move was to protect its turf that is now being encroached by Google.com.

Washington-based Microsoft Corp. on Monday bared plans to release the latest version of Office software online to protect its jurisdiction from Google.com’s assault, which has been locked horns with the former for several times now.

Forrester Research analyst Sheri McLeish said that the move was an obvious move by the computer company to defend one of its most profitable businesses against Internet giant. The analyst said that the web-based Office version is set to be released next year.

According to McLeish, Microsoft was drawn from hiding and was forced to provide a free product version online to compete with Google Docs.

Google Docs is a browser-based document and XL sheet editing software that is available online for free. McLeish said that it is a chance for the computer giant to etch a mark against Google, which have been dominating the internet for quiet sometime.

Earlier, Google has release the Chrome OS and software to go at par with Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Chrome OS is specifically designed to lure consumers away from computers running with Microsoft software.

Also earlier, Bing was launched by Microsoft to hit on Google’s search engine.

Analysts expect the battle between the two to be intense in the coming months. Both companies remain dominant in their respective fields and both were showing no signs of giving up.