It’s official. Microsoft has announced that Office 2010, apart from having many new features, will also be available as a FREE web application. Users will be able to take advantage of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, all for free online. Obviously the web versions of these products (expected to be released mid 2010) will have less features than the full, mostly likely very expensive, desktop versions.

This move to web apps will probably leave many Mac users happy as they will now be able to use Microsoft’s core Office products for free when iWork won’t make due, instead of having to buy Mac Office. Overall it is expected that many college students will benefit by this move.

Many people have concluded that Google’s seemingly random announcement of Chrome OS last week was a marketing tactic to keep the Office hype at bay, especially when Microsoft is now clearly going after Google Apps.

Read more about Office 2010’s new features here.