Microsoft Office Web Apps Vs Google Apps

Micosoft’s venture into the free web-based alternative for its Office 2010 has created a lot of fuss. It’s foresighted decision. Google Docs emerging as the most powerful online productivity app. Microsoft almost forced the launch of the free web based addition. In a bid to maintain its monopoly in market it appears as if the Redmond company has apprehended that its ace products Windows and Office doesn’t seem to have an indefinite future. The matter of fact is how powerful is the Web based Apps and does it score over Google Docs. However, with the diversification Microsoft will have all the bases covered a feature packed desktop productivity suite and a lightweight online version.

Microsoft’s Office suite is the largest selling product, forecasted to generate  $20 billion in revenue for 2009 of the market. Now  what’s driving Microsoft to introduce a free web-version that might drop its revenue.

According to Forrester Research analyst, Sheri McLeish  the expansion would provide a double punch to the company and would be good for industry. He explains, if there were no free alternative for Office suite from Google and Zoho, Microsoft wouldn’t have introduced free web-alternative.  Obviously, the competition in the productivity tools space benefits business and consumers.

Web-based Apps

Microsoft is yet to announce the features included in its Office Web Apps in details, however, the consumers would have to sign in for the Windows Live account to access Office Web Apps. According to Microsoft, there are over 400 million active users worldwide using the free Windows Live Online Service.

This would be effective in drawing people to use Microsoft’s much hyped search engine and other Windows Live online services such as e-mail, storage and blogging tools. Google has a similar strategy of directing people to its search engine via Google Apps and its other online services.

The web based apps are more popular with consumers due to their mobility and portability. Web-based apps can be accessed from the browser on a laptop or smartphone. The consumers would obviously prefer the Office Web Apps unlike the business users.

According to McLeish, there won’t be a significant rise in the usage of Web-based versions of Office at enterprises. Even today the businesses are mostly using the desktop tools and emailing files around. However, its essential for Microsoft to have the web-based option to have a competitive edge.

Enterprise edge

Although Web Apps seem adoption for consumers and enterprise might be slow, Microsoft’s two-way approach would always have an enterprise edge over other web based alternatives.

McLeish explains that Microsoft is offering wider options for businesses to deploy web based apps.

Take an instance, in order to get your businesses licensed for Microsoft’s Software Assurance maintenance program you don’t need to access Office Web Apps through the Windows Live Online Service or through a subscription-based model. Microsoft would allow companies with Software Assurance to run Office Web Apps as a free service within the company’s firewall and then give workers access to the apps via the Web. The set up will allow more control to the IT managers over potentially sensitive online content.

According to Forrester data, estimated 80 percent of businesses run production tools using Microsoft’s Office. These enterprises are most likely to use Office Web Apps. Google doesn’t offer the same level of comfort.

Although Microsoft’s Office Web App is anticipated to reign the market, we can expect Google Apps a to catch up soon after.  Let’s see where Google Docs is heading to.

Upgraded Google Docs

With analysts showering accolades over Microsoft, there’s a knee-jerk response from the Google Docs men. The Google Docs is undergoing changes in the word processing apps and would be out in a few weeks. Let’s take a look at the makeover Google Docs is undergoing

New Interface

Google Docs Product Manager Vijay Bangaru, commenting on Google Docs’ makeover wrote

We’re always looking for ways to make it easier to find what you’re looking for in Google Docs, which is why we’re taking some time to do a bit of remodeling to the Docs list. Over the next few weeks you’ll see a number of small changes, culminating in a brand new shiny interface.

Google would do away with the Shared with list in the left hand pane, for the starters. The company is recommending users to use search to do the same thing by clicking search options and typing the user’s name into the Shared with: box. Users might also save this search in Saved Searches for better accessibility.

New Sharing Menu

Google Docs would accompany a new Sharing Menu that would offer all the sharing functionality into one box. This will enable the users to manage sharing without having to leave the Docs list.

• New Search Option
• This option would allow the users to search by
• Exact phase matching by quotes
• Star or Hidden state
• Negation: For instance on searching salsa -dancing you will get the items with salsa recipes, but not items about dancing
• Who the doc is shared from or to

The sharing box and search operators are commendable inclusions, but the requirement to manually search for contacts with whom to share items needs.

Microsoft is far ahead of its rivals with its comprehensive Office package, but what remains to see is how successful it would be with the Google.