Microsoft Office Live Workspace — which Microsoft released to U.S. beta testers on December 10 — is Microsoft’s answer to Google Docs.
That
said, there are some pieces of Microsoft’s newest Live service that are
different from Google’s and its other Web 2.0 rivals’ offerings.
Office Live Workspace is
not a Web-based version of Microsoft Office. It is meant, first and
foremost, to be a complement to Microsoft Office. As Microsoft
officials have said, Office Live Workspace service can be used from a
PC, kiosk or other Web-access point without Office installed; all you
technically need is an Internet Explorer or Firefox browser. But the
company isn’t expecting the majority of Office Live Workspace users to
use the service this way.
As I’ve blogged before, Microsoft doesn’t have an incentive or
interest in taking one of its biggest client-based cash cows and making
it available over the Web. Microsoft execs say they’ve surveyed users
and that only a relatively small subset are interested in writing white
papers on the Web or creating a PowerPoint presentation from an
Internet kiosk. I have to agree. While many pundits and Web 2.0 backers
claim users want to be able to create, access, view and share documents
online, I believe it’s only the accessing, viewing and sharing that
most users really want.
At the same time, there are elements of Office Live Workspace that Microsoft ultimately could be position as a Web-based office
(with a lower case “o”) suite. There is a rudimentary online word
processor called Web Notes; a “spreadsheet” that (at least so far)
doesn’t do calculations called Web Lists; and the ability to access,
view and comment on documents — both your own and those created by
others who grant permission. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Microsoft —
somewhere down the road — assemble these elements, plus a couple of
others into a Web-based office suite that falls somewhere between
fat-client Office and ad-supported Microsoft Works.
Microsoft currently is aiming Office Live Workspace at the consumer,
small-business and education markets. It’s a service designed to
simplify document collaboration without disruption from firewalls.
Microsoft isn’t ruling out enterprises as a potential customer; to do
so would be to concede that space to Google Apps Premier Edition.
“We see two audiences for Office Live Workspace: Information
workers, ranging from home-based to enterprises, and students,” said
Eric Gilmore, Senior Product Manager for Office client.
But Microsoft is continuing to play up Office SharePoint Server,
Office Groove and the company’s growing stable of Microsoft-hosted
Online services as the best products for business customers.
Microsoft’s argument: Business users need to take into account
regulatory compliance, archiving, back-up, directory integration,
auditing, etc. — all things that SharePoint can do better than Office
Live Workspace.
Office Live Workspace is going to “thousands” of pre-registered
testers in the U.S. today. Microsoft plans to extend the test to
international users “early next year.” Additional languages beyond
English will be available “later in 2008.” To be able to save from
inside Office to Office Live Workspace, users need to download a client plug-in that is available on the Microsoft Download Center.
Microsoft has said that current Office for Mac and OpenOffice users
also will be able to make use of Office Live Workspace, but there are
no plug-ins allowing the automatic saving of content from those
products to the Live service.
There’s no word on when Microsoft plans to take the “beta” tag off
the service, but company officials are calling this release “version 1.”
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1030