It's just been confirmed that the upcoming Microsoft Office 2010 is in the private testing phase right now. Office 2010 is Microsoft's newest update to their Office application suite, and it includes free online versions of all of its apps.

Online applications will include Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. Anyone with a Microsoft Live account can use them. This much we've known for a few hours. What's new is the fact that we now know that the actual app suite itself is now in the “Technical Preview” phase of development. There will be an invitation-only testing of the product by thousands of selected users.

Of the changes coming to office, PowerPoint video editing and the option to ignore threads in Outlook appear to be the biggest ones. Microsoft's also added in a Backstage view, which will supposedly make it much easier to prep a document for publication. From what screenshots I've seen, the new Office does look pretty spectacular. It's a pity that only a few thousand testers get to play with it right now.

Oops! I spoke too soon. Apparently the Technical Preview for Office 2010 has leaked onto the Internet. Is anyone at all surprised by this? This, coupled with the early leak of Windows 7 a few months back, makes me think Microsoft might have a leak they need to plug.