Billy Gates and his wonder squad are getting froggy, and want to make it known to the tech world that they still consider themselves to reign supreme. Microsoft announced their newest plans for the upcoming Office 2010 suite. One of the biggest buzzes, being free office web applications, that will mimic the Office ‘10 suite. Developers also stated that Web Office ‘10 will be fully supported on not just IE, but also Mozilla Firefox and even Apple Safari (no love for Google Chrome). Office 2010 is set to be released in the 1st quarter of 2010.

Okay, this is an obvious attempt to push Microsoft Office to a better competing standpoint against web apps such as Google Docs, and I’ve gotta say that this was a demanding move on Microsoft’s part. Google Docs just has so much to offer, and whatever it isn’t able to do for you, one can easily accomplish with a free download of OpenOffice. However, the thought of getting the features of Microsoft Office, while also getting the mobility and online central storage of a web app like Google Docs is nerdgasm inducing.

As a current Office 10 beta tester, I like the new office suite.  It has a few nice extra features and flow, and does some really neat stuff when tied with Windows 7. Notably my personal favorite, is that it ties in jumplists seamlessly.  However Microsoft has announced that the web app version of Office will be a “lite” version, leading one to wonder if it will even have anything more to offer than it’s competitors.

In the end, I’m mostly excited about one thing: competition. Even open source behemoths like Google need some good competitors to keep them striving for better software and development. The same thing goes for Microsoft. It’s what leads them to give us, the consumers, better and more affordable technology.

Well, it appears Google is one step closer to taking over the universe with their announcement of a Chrome OS. I say ‘taking over the universe’ rather than ‘taking over the internet’ because he controls the internet, controls the universe – or at least the hearts and minds that dwell in it. That may seem over-dramatic but if one controls, or controls a large portion of, access to the most broad communications platform the world has ever seen, does that entity, person or corporation, not have some measure of control over the information passed along said platform and thus have a bit of a grip on those who participate in the community that uses that platform – which, in time, will be just about everyone, if it isn’t already.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe Google’s plodding takeover of the net is fueled by malevolence. I like Google; their business moves tend to bring the internet as it is closer to what it can, and should, be. However, with cloud computing concepts and server-side applications being the core principles behind their new OS – an OS which, I’m sure, will become the primary OS for netbooks – it wouldn’t surprise me if one day, when we’re doing all our computing online, Google said to us “Oh, guys, didn’t I tell you? You have to pay for this.” The first hit is generally free.

Do I think Google will actually squeeze when they have us by the balls? Nah. I mean that’s one possible dark future, but it’ll probably continue to be business as usual. Google will continue to develop solid applications and platforms, we’ll do more and more of our computing online (especially with browsers gaining the ability to run native code), and we’ll just keep paying or ISP fees.

As a side note, I was totally early on this Google OS thing. Just ask my friends. Really.