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Times online: Microsoft moves into Cloud Computing

May 14, 2010

Microsoft has launched an updated version of its Office software to try to counter Google while maintaining its grip on the hugely profitable business application market.

Microsoft has launched an updated version of its Office software to try to counter Google while maintaining its grip on the hugely profitable business application market.

The world’s largest software company has upgraded its Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint applications and rolled out its own online versions of Google’s software to keep up with the new class of mobile and web users that has emerged since the last upgrade in 2006.

Microsoft said that Office 2010 would have several improvements, such as editing photos in Word, using video in PowerPoint presentations, collaborating on documents and an Outlook e-mail program that will pull in information from users’ social networks, such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

The biggest change is Microsoft’s move into “cloud” — allowing users to manipulate documents stored on remote servers from anywhere — in which Google has been setting the pace.

Times Online