Back in January when Microsoft announced the rebranding of SkyDrive to OneDrive, it was also rumored that Microsoft could be rebranding their Office Web Apps suite to Office Online instead, which we have to admit sounds a lot better and rolls off the tongue in a nicer way too. Now according to a sighting on Microsoft’s “compare” page for its consumer Office offerings, it looks like Microsoft is getting closer to launching the rebranding off its free Office apps. As you can see in the image above, Office Online is clearly listed next to Microsoft’s other Office offerings, such as Office 365 Home Premium and Office 365 University.
Offline Online will essentially be the free version, and in a way can be thought of as Microsoft’s answer to Google Docs, Google Spreadsheet, and so on. It has been around since 2010 but wasn’t as readily obvious compared to Google’s efforts, which is why the goal of Office Online is to make itself more discoverable and understandable to the public. Apart from just rebranding the name of the app suite, the apps within will also see a rebranding and will be henceforth known as Word Online, Excel Online, PowerPoint Online, and OneNote Online. Microsoft is also expected to make Office Online templates available to users. No launch date was specified but based on the screenshot above, we can only assume it will be soon.
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