Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Breaking News: Microsoft will offer Office as a service


From the WSJ:

Microsoft Corp. is creating online services coupled with its two major software lines -- Windows and Office -- that are designed to open new opportunities for the company to sell subscriptions or advertising associated with its software.

The offerings include Office Live, an online version of its Office suite of business productivity applications. The service is designed to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to set up and maintain Office than it is today.

This is a direct response to Google+Sun, which Larry Page declined.

In another thrust, Microsoft plans to offer elements of its MSN online service to Windows users under an online service called Windows Live. The Windows Live service will house Microsoft's Messenger instant-messaging service, a new Web mail service dubbed Kahuna and Microsoft Spaces, the company's service for creating the online postings known as Web logs, or blogs"

This seems like a resurgence of Active Desktop circa IE 4.0?

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