Google Retools for the Battle With Microsoft

Google(GOOG Quote) may be beefing up its already considerable suite of free online applications in a move that might ultimately target Microsoft(MSFT Quote).

The search giant already offers a hosted word processor and spreadsheet that resemble Microsoft's hallmark Word and Excel programs. But Google now seems to be developing a presentation program that would provide a function similar to Microsoft's PowerPoint, according to the popular tech blog TechCrunch.

Reports of the PowerPoint clone first began to spread after bloggers found a reference to the product in Google programming code, which has since been cleaned up.

Although Google's fledgling suite of word processing and number-crunching applications isn't yet a big moneymaker, it has the potential to change the competitive landscape for Google and its rivals down the road. ...