Microsoft announces Office online

Microsoft have always been accused of resting on it's laurels and cashing in on someone else's hard work and ideas. When this happens, they do two things. First, they try and buy the new upstart out with their vast reserves of cash. If this is refused, they get tough and release something similar and again use their marketing muscle to squeeze the competition out.

There have been many casualties along the way, such as Netscape Navigator which was considered a superior web browser, proven by it's peak of 80% market share. Microsoft then launched Windows 95 with their own browser Explorer bundled for free. Despite Netscape's functional superiority, Explorer eventually came out as the winner with it's freebie and vast distribution network.

This is bad news for consumers where Microsoft's inferior products are stifling the competition. However, this has not gone without notice, as the EU recently charged the company for breach of monopoly rules with a $690m fine.

But Google is a different beast altogether. Previously, competition were dependent on the Windows OS. Google is not. Because it's applications are based online, it can work though any browser, sweeping away Microsoft's advantage.

It's no small wonder why Microsoft has reluctantly been dragged into online applications. But, with Google encroaching in it's comfort zone with Chrome OS, they have had to act. And so we have Office online (albeit a Lite version) vs Google Docs.

Further reading on BBC News.

Introducing Google Chrome OS

Google's recent re-labeling of it's applications from Beta to official has culminated in an announcement on their blog that they will be entering the operating system market with their long-anticipated Google OS, or Google Chrome OS as they would like to call it.

Since the launch of it's Android OS for mobile phones, it became clear that this sleeping giant is not just a one trick search engine pony. And with the market for netbooks increasing, currently 8% of the market share, PC manufacturers will welcome the competition to challenge Microsoft prices for software licensing.

This new emerging market is crucial as sales of these lighter and cheaper computers continues to grow. Microsoft's current OS, Windows Vista, is simply too big and cumbersome to install and run on the smaller hard drives and RAM. So they've had to extend the life of Windows XP which it officially killed off in June 2007.

With the migration of expandable storage and software online, Google has allowed Chrome to run on varying machine sizes. It can even be run on the chip that powers the Apple iPhone. Online usage is the key issue, where computers are no longer limited by their physical constraints. Google has also addressed users without internet connection with the launch of it's offline software, Google Gears.

With Microsoft Bing's recent foray into the search engine business, it looks like Google is fighting back. Interesting times are ahead.

Read more on Guardian Online.