Storm the Googleplex

Microsoft vs. Google. With Microsoft moving quickly into the service realm and with Google eyeing the enterprise, this battle will be as hot as ever in 2009. The two have coffers stuffed with cash, executives with big ideas and a passion to stomp the other into submission. The most active battlefield is likely to be around productivity applications with Web-based versions of Office applications slated from Microsoft and Google trying desperately to put IT features into its Apps platform. Of course, there will always be the fight for advertising dollars and search eyeballs, but with Google's sizable lead it isn't likely to feel much heat from Microsoft in those areas.

Microsoft will begin a public beta test of what it calls the "Office Web applications" later this year. They will allow users to create and edit new documents online from within a Web browser, said Justin Hutchinson, group product manager for Microsoft's Office Client division, in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.