Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft brought users of its popular Office application suite the ability to work  online with documents from programs including Word and Excel, using a new service called Microsoft Office Live Workspace that entered into a global public test Tuesday. Unlike similar free Web-based applications from companies such as Zoho and search giant Google, Microsoft Office Live Workspace is aimed at consumers who have already purchased desktop editions of Office, allowing them to access and share their documents online. Workspace Offers Office Users New Features Microsoft, while moving forward with its $45 billion hostile bid to acquire Web pioneer Yahoo, looks to move more of its traditionally desktop-based applications online in an effort to cut into the sizable lead Google enjoys in the rapidly growing Web application, search and online advertising realms. Tuesdays Workspace launch broadens a private beta test Microsoft initially began for the service in October 2007. "We are responding to the most urgent needs of the 500 million Office users. They want to access their documents anywhere," Microsoft senior product manager Guy Gilbert recently told the Washington Post. Several screen shots from Workspace are shown below throughout the text. Users of Workspace, essentially a Web-based Office  component, can work online to create, edit and store documents authored in Microsoft Office software, allowing Office users to access their work from any computer online, although all features of Workspace will only be available on computers which have Office installed. Information such as Work documents, PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets can be accessed using Workspace, and shared with others without having to send e-mail attachments or copy files to public computers. "Today’s announcement moves us further down the path of bringing a software plus services experience to people at home, work and school," Microsoft Business Division president Stephen Elop said in a statement Tuesday. "By combining the rich client experience of Microsoft Office with flexible, intuitive service offerings, we’re providing seamless computing experiences for our 500 million Office users worldwide," Elop added. A Week of Microsoft Moving Online Tuesday's Workspace launch, which offers only an English-language version at present with the promise of future additional native language versions, comes on the heels of Microsoft's Monday announcement that it would make online versions of certain business applications available to small firms, including the e-mail program Exchange, freeing companies from buying and maintaining servers in exchange for paying subscription fees to access versions running on the Web on Microsoft's servers. Workspace is expected to graduate from the present beta test stage later this year, although no date has been set, Microsoft said. Consumers and businesses are more frequently than ever before weighing the risks and advantages associated with placing sensitive data on servers owned by separate firms, according to computer security analysts. Placing information online makes it easier to access and share, yet may also increase exposure to unauthorized access attempts, analysts say. Microsoft has not revealed pricing for the enterprise software announced Monday, nor whether it will change its Office licensing fee structure with the release of Workspace. As the world's biggest software maker, Microsoft takes in most of its revenue from licensing desktop-based applications such as Windows Vista and Office 2007. During its last quarter Microsoft brought in revenue of $16.4 billion, with 56 percent coming from such licensing. How Workspace Works While not an online version of Office, which is estimated to have over 500 million users worldwide, Microsoft has given Workspace users 500MB of online disk storage in the test version launched Tuesday, enough to  store what it claims to be approximately 1,000 average size Office documents. While it is possible to use Workspace online from a computer that doesn't have Microsoft Office installed, functionality is limited. It is only on computers already using Office where Workspace may be fully used to edit documents, and in order to do this separate software - which Microsoft calls an "Office Add-In" - must be installed on the computer accessing the service. A Windows Live ID account is also necessary when using Workspace. The service includes an activity panel for monitoring changes, and Workspace can also notify users of changes via e-mail. A Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed for tracking changes is planned as well, Microsoft said. Workspace doesn't work with Apple's Safari Web browser, although Microsoft plans to support it in the future. Users of Internet Explorer version 6 or later and Firefox 2.0 can use Workspace, which also includes a versioning system for rolling back to previous versions of documents. The service joins other Microsoft Web service efforts, including an online storage service called SkyDrive and a social networking service called Spaces. Microsoft Workspace Brings Office Users To Web In conjunction with Tuesday's public test release of Workspace, Microsoft announced that it is running a sweepstakes for consumers who sign up for the service, offering a $100,000 grand prize and a total of 30,000 other prizes, including mobile phones, Xbox game consoles and 23,000 beverage coupons. Microsoft said that it will allow Workspace users to earn additional chances to win a sweepstakes prize by sharing documents online using the service. The Google Challenge As Microsoft has moved to reel in Google, the Mountain View, California based rival has not been without its own launches, most recently unveiling a free online service called Google Sites, that allows consumers  or teams of people to easily create, share and collaborate on media-rich Web sites, in a new addition to Google's year-old collection of free online applications. Google executive Dave Girouard said the new service was "literally adding an edit button to the Web." These types of moves may make it harder for Microsoft to draw closer to Google in a rivalry that has increasingly moved into the online battlefield. Google's online application suite already has over 500,000 businesses signed up according to the firm, with some 2,000 new ones registering to use Google Apps each day. Looking to move the desktop software dominance it enjoys onto the Web, the Workspace service launched Tuesday represents Microsoft's biggest push yet, a move Gilbert says won't be limited, because "nothing is really off the table." More than a dozen universities had signed on to participate in the Workspace test, according to Microsoft, which also said the previous private test had drawn over 100,000 participants. Related Links:
| 
10:51 pm on Mar. 4, 2008 (utc 0)
