With Microsoft Launching Office 2010, Google Takes a Swipe

Microsoft is set to launch Office 2010 on Wednesday, making the software available to businesses, and Google is using the opportunity to tout its own software for companies — Google Docs.

Microsoft

In an official blog post, Google encouraged people to “consider an alternative: upgrading Office with Google Docs.” Google has been encouraging businesses to switch platforms for some time now, but the introduction of Office 2010 presents it with another chance to take a direct swipe at Microsoft. “If you choose this path,” Google enterprise product management director Matthew Glotzbach writes in the post, “upgrade means what it’s supposed to mean: effortless, affordable, and delivering a remarkable increase in employee productivity.”

The post is part of Google’s attempt to move people from software such as Microsoft Office to Google’s offer of “cloud computing” — a term for Web-based software. Proponents of such software say it allows documents to be shared more easily and that it cuts down on expenses because companies no longer need to buy servers to handle the data. Microsoft too is expanding its Web-based offerings with Office 2010, after offering Outlook online for years.

But “cloud” software also has raised questions about the security of data that is stored with an outside vendor, such as Google. Google’s report earlier this year that hackers from China had attempted to access Gmail accounts raised concerns about the security of that information, for example, although analysts have said that performance of cloud systems is more reliable than that found in most small and medium businesses.

Microsoft, which has long dominated the market for office software, says Google’s efforts are not a match for Office. “There is no competitive solution that comes close to what Microsoft offers,” a Microsoft spokeswoman said.

Google, which charges $50 per user per year for use of its upgraded Google Docs software, acknowledges the strength of Office in the business world. Previously, Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said the company’s offerings aren’t as good as established software like Microsoft’s but that 80% parity is good enough for most people. In the latest post, the company says that users “probably already own Office 2003 or 2007 (or maybe Office 2000?).” And to counter that, the company proposes that businesses use Google Docs in addition to older versions of Office.

Microsoft, not surprisingly, disagrees with that approach. “This underscores they do not understand the needs of businesses,” the Microsoft spokeswoman said. “This approach would require businesses to manage two systems and create a poor quality experience for workers. Not only does the approach decrease productivity, it increases costs.”