"If you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold." -- a user named "blue_beetle" on MetaFilter

Google beefing up the presentations side of Google Docs isn’t the slickest part of the package

Google Apps, used on a variety of devices like mobile phones and tablets, allows offline use of Google Calendar, Docs and Gmail.

There are still plenty of businesses that prefer to host data and applications internally rather than in the cloud but they are as silly as people that keep their money under a mattress instead of in a bank, according to Google|Google distributors.

Starting from August 1, Google will only support the current and prior major releases of the Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari Web browsers.

Users and business managers alike are loving the iPad as a potential laptop replacement, for at least part of the time. And more and more companies are providing employees iPads or letting employees use their own. So, just as companies typically install a suite of desktop productivity apps (nearly always Microsoft Office), what should the iPad equivalent be?

Microsoft held a major launch event this week to unveil Office 2010--the latest release of it's venerable and dominant office productivity suite. As with any major product release, Office 2010 has a variety of new and updated features, but do any of them offer a compelling reason to invest in upgrading to it?

The war of words between Microsoft and Google over Office 2010 and its entry into online, cloud-based applications heated up today as both companies again took shots at each other.

Memeo Connect for Google Apps is a desktop application that syncs desktop files with the Google Docs cloud. It helps with file conversions, too, and is available for both Mac and Windows.

Google has unveiled plans today to allow Google Docs to store any type of files, and revealed a new tool from Memeo to enable users to access, migrate, and synchronize files between their desktop and Google Docs. These announcements signify a broader strategy by Google to help business customers bridge the gap between the desktop and the cloud.

I'm looking forward to Microsoft's browser-based edition of Office. While the company isn't leading the trend to cloud-based apps, it's certainly in the middle of the movement. Microsoft's suite will be released next year, but you can save money by accessing online office-style apps right now. In-browser productivity suites are typically free. Plus, I like them for lightweight systems, such as netbooks, where Microsoft's desktop suite feels too bloated for even typing.

The future may be the cloud, but it also may be Microsoft that ushers us into that realm of possibility and imagination. Today, Redmond unveiled as a part of Office 2010 a suite of Microsoft Office Web apps that will compete directly with Google Docs. While Microsoft isn't letting anyone play around with the apps just yet, on paper, Microsoft's Web apps look like they could blow Google's online services out of the water -- beta or no beta.