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First, Microsoft gnawed into Google's market share in the search engine with the reasonably successful "Bing" search engine last May. Two months later, Google's reprisal came in the form of Chrome OS, a new operating system that's ultimately going to put most of a PC's functionality on cloud computing. Back then I had a feeling that it was only a matter of time before Microsoft counter-attacked with yet another Google-aimed venture.

I was right -- now Microsoft is out to challenge Google Apps by offering a free version of its Microsoft Office Suite on the cloud. That's right -- Microsoft is coming out with its own Google Apps, and it's a very risky move at that.

Everyone knows Microsoft earns billions of dollars each year with its Microsoft Office suite of programs, and there's no doubt that despite its hangups, it's still the office suite with the most bang for the buck. Google Apps is free and offers much of MS Office's functionality, but can't really cope with the kind of work that bigger players do.

Basically, I think Microsoft is walking a fine line between offering more functionality than Google Apps, but less than its standard offline Office suite. It will be interesting to see what happens if Microsoft can pull it off, but equally painful to see if the entire plan fails.

I'm personally not a fan of doing my work on the cloud -- with the Internet speeds I'm getting in Malaysia and Thailand, working with Google Apps is clunky at best. What's worse, broadband lines in this part of the world are prone to going down anytime -- what happens when I lose my connection in the middle of an important project? The mere thought of it is enough to keep most of my work offline.

I prefer working with open-source office suites like OpenOffice -- it's free, it's functional, and it feels like the real thing. Just tweak the default file types and you have every bit of MS Office XP's functionality.

But I'll have to admit that cloud computing really is the future of the way we work today -- gone is the monopoly that Microsoft once held over the industry. People are now looking for cheaper ways to do work, and Google Apps has largely filled that need -- there are about 15 million users of the online App right now.

"Microsoft Apps" is set to be released in 2010, so Google still has time to work on its next reprisal. But with its own Office suite in place and OS on the way, it's pretty much got Microsoft backed up against the wall.