Yesterday we were reading how Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has been getting pretty testy with reporters concerning questions over it’s strategy to break into the advertising market thatGoogle (Nasdaq: GOOG) controls.

Microsoft finds itself in an unusual position of weakness as it struggles to play catch up. The word on the street was that they are throwing themselves at trying to edge Google off its position of strength in the ad market.

This morning we may have heard the “response” from Google. Google is going to be offering it’s own operating system called Chrome. This is the core strength of Microsoft, and going after it is a direct attack from Google.

While much is being made – and will continue to be for a while – of this new software competing with Google, the reality is that Microsoft has been competing with Google for a while now in terms of online applications. It just removed the “beta” tags from its online software of gmail and suite.

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has 50,000 apps on its iPhone app store – this space has been cluttered for some time now.

The question is whether Google’s timing of Chrome is specifically meant to disrupt the roll out of  Windows 7 slated for later this year. By pulling customers away from what looks to be Microsoft’s next big act, Google will be obviously competing toe to toe with the software titan in Redmond.

Any missteps could come back to haunt either company.

Symbols mentioned in this article: MSFT, GOOG and AAPL.

Source: Google Takes MSFT Head on