Google's Web Apps Have Microsoft Thinking

Google's idea of web based applications have Microsoft thinking. As the idea of web based applications continues to grow, Microsoft is getting busy with plans to keep Microsoft Word, Excel, and Power Point competitive. Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's new chief software architect, does not think the company will develop web-only applications but instead, applications based on mobile devices that will take advantage of the PC as well as web and mobile services.

Watching Google Inc. rake in advertising revenue "was a wake-up call within Microsoft," the company's top technical executive, Ray Ozzie, said Tuesday. But he said Microsoft plans to do more than simply mimic Google by rolling out Web-based versions of desktop programs or following its particular search and advertising model. Ozzie, who has only made a handful of appearances since his promotion last June to replace Bill Gates as chief software architect, told analysts and investors at a Goldman Sachs conference in Las Vegas that he has been laying the groundwork for programmers across the company to build Internet-based software.