Microsoft Writes Off Google

Microsoft's co-head of the Office software team says the company is not intimidated by Google's web-based word processing and spreadsheet applications, claiming they will not appeal to corporate customers.

Microsoft Office group Antoine Leblond says that Google is just another application that will not be able to de-throne the reigning king of office software. "Free software has an appealing ring to it, but free software has been around for a while now and it turns out free doesn't trump the software doing what people need it to do," Antoine LeBlond said in an interview with Google Docs & Spreadsheets site, the applications is, "a free web-based word processing and spreadsheet program that keeps documents current and lets the people you choose update files from their own computers." With Google being the Microsoft of the search engine world, it is the most popular search engine, it would seem that Microsoft should consider them to be competition. As of yesterday, in fact, shares of Google's stock jumped up to $500 per share. Eric Schmidt, Google's Chief Executive, claims that the company is not attempting to compete with Microsoft Office stating rather that they are, "focused on simple applications with an emphasis on sharing that are aimed at consumers and small business users", according to Reuters. Schmidt says that Google's comparable applications are not aimed at mega-corporations, the way Microsoft is, but rather toward individual consumers and smaller businesses. Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl Autmn Davis is a staff writer for Murdok covering ebusiness and technology.