Microsoft Prepping Browser-based Word and Excel

JCWDenton writes "In a bid to spin its web-based version of Office into contention with rival internet behemoth Google, Microsoft has said it will begin accepting applications for beta testing its web apps later this year. There is one significant difference, however: unlike Google apps, Microsoft said users of its new service can only create or edit online documents if they have Office software already installed on their machines. Microsoft said features of its Office Live Workspace would include allowing users to upload more than 1,000 documents to free personal websites."

Comments

Already have Office installed

[christurkel]

And will work only Internet Explorer, let me guess. This is will be competition, how?

Typical Microsoft-think

[BJZQ8]

Microsoft said users of its new service can only create or edit online documents if they have Office software already installed on their machines

So close, yet so far away...

Re:What's the point?

[PlatyPaul]

My guess is to allow you to use Office tools while not at your usual desktop machine. One serious downside, however, is that this makes piracy that much easier: one legal copy would be needed per office, with all other machines logged into the online version. No blank media and CD-key cracking required.

Pros and Cons

[thatskinnyguy]

Pros:

• Updated versions constantly
• Access from anywhere the tubes go.
• Ease of sharing documents.

Cons:

• DoS attack at Microsoft could mean loss of revenues for companies using this service
• I never have experienced any "outages" of Office installed on my desktop. Have you?
• Do you really own anything but your user name for this service? How expensive is a user name going to be?

Other companies already do it better

[Alzheimers]

It's a sad state when other companies have remade MS Office better than Microsoft makes their own software. I like Google Documents and Sheets, but my favorite so far is ThinkFree.com. It's got the look and feel of Office, but all the collaborative features that the desktop software lacks, and it's completely accessable from anywhere in the world from just about any machine. And like Google it's completely free for the online version. The only downside is how long it takes to open a document, but it's a small inconvenience compared to downloading Openoffice on a friend's PC who got shafted with a demo version of MS Works.

Re:come now. tell me that this isnt a me-too -

[xgr3gx]

I agree, me-too's aren't always bad. They foster competition and innovation. But everything shouldn't be a me too. When a new technology shows up and M$ wants in, they quickly buy a startup that has already developed something similar, and rebrands it to M$. That's not even a me-too, that's just laziness. Who did they buyout for this online office thing? And putting Outlook online...that's called webmail. (I'll give them credit though...the calendar reminders look just like the desktop Outlook...that's cool)

Re:Why office should be installed in the machine?

[Angst Badger]

It's much more likely that Office will simply launch as a tab or iframe in IE, with no actual connection to the net besides the ability to store and retrieve documents from one of Microsoft's servers. What's being sold here, ultimately, is an MS-hosted fileserver with provisions for sharing files amongst one's coworkers.

In terms of actual document-editing capabilities, Google's office toys aren't serious competition for anyone. Their strength is in providing collaboration tools for small to medium-sized business. (Forget the enterprise.) OpenOffice actually is competition for MS Office in terms of capabilities, though it still lags way behind in collaboration tools. Until Google -- or someone else -- stops screwing around with second-rate DHTML clones of WordPad, and builds MS Office-equivalent (and interoperable) collaboration tools for OpenOffice, Microsoft has nothing to fear from Google in this area.

In the meantime, Microsoft is just fishing around for new revenue streams. The problem here isn't that Microsoft doesn't get it. They get it just fine. The problem is that neither their customer base nor their competition get it. You and I, dear reader, may be dismayed by their bullshit, but we aren't part of the target market in the first place.

Re:What's the point?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod parent's post up. Microsoft is NOT creating a "browser-based" version of MS Office. The press release simply describes a collaboration service that allows you to store and share office documents online. Folks assuming otherwise haven't read the press release (big surprise) and are dolts.

Re:Google competes?

[j-pimp]

Google is competing with MS Office? Don't you actually have to have a product on the market to be considered a competitor?

At this point, all the pies Google plans to have their thumbs in are nothing more than vaporware.

There are certain documents that I store in google docs and spreadsheets. I'd hardly call their apps vaporware.

Microsoft has a product. Google's online office tools perform a similar function. Its very possible people can say that Google's suite is "good enough" for some people not to buy Office. On top of that, if someone uses Google's office suite because its free and then decides they need more functionality, they would be more likely to consider Open Office if they already find free office suites as acceptable.

Look at the IE versus Netscape competition of the browser wars. Netscape and Microsoft were both giving away browsers for free. They both wanted their browser to dominate so they could sell their other products, that were delivered to the users through browsers.

Online word processors are not up to par

[icepick72]

For the most part, the web browser is too generic to allow any product built on it to compete with an existing standalone counterpart (unless it natively make heavy use of the web), just like Google apps vs Microsoft Office standalone. Hell, even Open Office is having a hard time fighting MS with a standalone product of its own. I can imagine Open Office developers would laugh if approached with the great idea of "going online" to continue competing. You'll always have a select few who are happy with the web version but the stats are extremely small.

The only reason for Microsoft to go online is to provide an answer to Google apps and others like it. Sure it's a useless answer but at least it's an answer. MS office needs better web integration regardless.

Thin edge of the wedge

[xigxag]

Microsoft is clearly hoping the whole web app idea will fail. To a large extent, Office IS Microsoft. It is their huge cash cow and must be protected at all costs.

But, they don't want to be caught totally unprepared for a paradigm shift, so placing web apps allows them to gauge the market penetration and use of these types of applications, as well as keeping users locked into the MS camp.

But they don't really want to see this succeed, not even a little bit. MS doesn't "get" the web, never has, and if they have to compete on Google's home turf, they will lose.