Google Extends Microsoft Office Support Due to Customer Complaints

Google announced on October 1 that it would drop support for older Microsoft Office formats in its Apps service, but the Mountain View-based company is apparently reconsidering the decision due to consumer complaints.

Google initially planned to phase out old file formats employed by Office 97-2003, including DOC, XLS and PPT, so it would continue to focus on DOCX, XLSX and PPTX.

Surprisingly however, Microsoft Office is much more popular among Google Apps fans, so due to consumer complaints, Google had to reconsider its decision.

Amit Singh, VP of Google Enterprise, said that support for exporting files to older formats has been extended to January 31, 2013.

“I was surprised [at] how many of you want to stay on Office 2003 and use [Google] Docs to interoperate,” Singh said.