Microsoft has finally announced that it would soon introduce Web-based versions of Office. Now the Microsoft Office users will be able to edit their documents via a Web browser or mobile phone. Microsoft Office is a set of interrelated desktop applications, servers and services like Word, Excel, Access, Front Page etc. collectively referred to as an office suite, for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating system users. This move of Microsoft is actually to compete with Google docs on world wide web. Microsoft has still not disclosed how much it would charge for the Web-based versions of its Office programs.

The Web-based programs will be part of the next version of Office and will work in IE, Firefox and Safari browsers. These “Office Web applications” will be available to the Microsoft consumers through Office Live. This service has both ad-funded and subscription options. However, business users will be offered Office Web applications as a hosted subscription service and through existing “volume licensing agreements”.

“Nobody, none of our competitors, will do as good of a job on the phone, the browser or the PC,” Chris Capossela, a senior vice president at Microsoft’s Office business

This move has once again the importance of internet in software world. Now no software will survive without its usability on internet. Soon, we will see the internet version of Windows and Vista operating systems.