Many Microsoft newsgroups woke up to posts from the Seattle based company which has opened up a sneak peek at the the upcoming Office Web Apps, and you can take it for a spin. Using the cloud-based SkyDrive storage as a backbone, Microsoft Office Web Apps enables to access and work with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files using any (compatible) Web browser from any Internet-connected device in the world.

Microsoft has had its eye on Web-based apps for some time, but it lags behind the competition. Rivals like Google have long offered online productivity applications like Google Docs.

Starting today a limited number of invitation-only consumers will have access to the lightweight applications that are designed to compete with Google Apps and online cloud computing software from other vendors. The invite-only participants will have access to the applications through Microsoft’s Windows Live SkyDrive service. Participation is by invitation only, and the preview is initially available in English and Japanese. It will be available in additional languages later this fall.

Users who have the Microsoft Office applications installed locally on their computer can save directly to the SkyDrive storage or open files directly from the cloud within Office 2010 applications.

The Office Web Apps are still very rough and lack many features according to the USENET newsgroups discussions. The Office Web Apps components do not have the same comprehensive feature sets of their Microsoft Office desktop suite peers, but they provide a platform for creating and editing basic files via the Web. Microsoft has developed Office Web Apps to ensure that Office documents render accurately in browsers-even mobile device browsers-without data loss or formatting issues.

The battle between Microsoft and the competition could go on for a while. “Google has been trying to catch up to Microsoft in terms of functionality and feature-rich capabilities for the desktop app space, and they have a long way to go,” ITIC’s DiDio said. “Microsoft is trying to catch up with Google in online and Web-based stuff.”

Microsoft intends to make Office Web Apps available for PCs and Macs and will support Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari browsers.