Remember MS Office's Web Services concept?

A feather silently popped in Google's cap, within Google Documents, Google's MS Office alternative - functionality Microsoft has been looking towards for a while.

Here are just two examples of why SaaS (Software as a Service) providers can much more easily tap into the power of the web.

• Gadgets in spreadsheets
  Ever wish you could map your spreadsheet data? Pivot around it? Plot it on a fancy chart? Create any visualization you want by choosing from our existing library of gadgets, or writing your own. The power is yours. Learn more.
  

• Historical quotes using GoogleFinance

The GoogleFinance function can now be used to view historical prices of stocks. Just specify the stock and a date range (or number of days) and get values of open, close, volume etc. of stocks for those days. This is valid for the Nasdaq, New York, American and London exchanges. Learn more.

Wow - maybe Microsoft should hurry up and buy Yahoo. Then again, maybe it's just tougher to move from desktop to web than from web to desktop?

• Offline access
  You can now edit your documents and view your presentations and spreadsheets without an internet connection. Changes are saved to your browser while you are offline and automatically saved when Google Docs detects an internet connection. Learn more.