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.

Co-leader of 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 Reuters.

LeBlond and Kurt DelBene took over the Office group in June, after predecessor Steve Sinofsky left to lead the Windows group.

Programs of Office include Word Processor, Power Point, Excel, and Outlook email, which LeBlond oversees, while DelBene is in charge of the new SharePoint Web collaboration software.

Next week Microsoft will be releasing the much anticipated Office upgrade to business customers, as well as Windows Vista operating system; both of which Microsoft hopes will result in the growth of the software company.

Google is also looking to expand its reach with the release of applications that rival several Office programs including scheduling, spread sheets, employee web sites, and word processing.

According to the Google Docs & Spreadsheets site, the applications ism, "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.

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