Microsoft unveiled another piece of its Office web strategy, and what is perhaps most interesting about it is what it isn't: entirely web-based. Rather, Microsoft's move hopes to leverage the success of their Office client software to drive users to a new online collaboration site dubbed Office Live Workspace.
Office Live Workspace is not an online office suite. The aim of OLW is simple: give web-connected users a no-cost place to store, share, and collaborate on Office documents. To that end, the company will give registered users 250 MB of storage space, which can be used to store documents "in the cloud" or even "host" them for comments by other users equipped with just a web browser (you will be able to manage the access rights of other users). However, and this is important: you cannot create new Office documents with this feature nor can you edit documents beyond adding comments without having a copy of Microsoft Office installed locally.
As you can see, this is not a "Google Docs killer" or even an "answer" to Google Docs. This is not an online office suite, it's "software plus service." Microsoft's move here protects the company's traditional Office business, in that it's really positioned as a value-add to Office, rather than an Office alternative. Microsoft has seen success with its business-oriented SharePoint offering, and Microsoft is taking a kind of "SharePoint Lite" approach with OLW.
Microsoft says that OLW will integrate back into the client software, which means that users will be able to manage OLW documents from within Office itself. You can save directly from Word, Excel or PowerPoint to the online storage. OLW will also allow users to store files from other office suites, although integration will not be complete.
At first blush, the 250 MB of storage space will be more than enough for casual users, but hardcore Office junkies will be quickly looking for more storage space. Indeed, the idea of "anywhere access" that Microsoft is pushing here is really only complete once users can store and search all of their documents online. Of course, in the Microsoft ecosystem, there are other tools that let you access files that are stored on a remote Windows PC, but complete integration would be better.
OLW will officially support Office 2003 and 2007 when it opens later this year. Currently users can pre-register for the beta here. We experienced problems with the pre-reg site earlier this morning, but eventually got through.
Microsoft's announcement called Windows Live Workspace "among the first entries in the new wave of online services." Microsoft has plenty more up its sleeve, and for those of you looking for clues, continue to think about software plus service approaches to integration. Will we ever see a full-blown online office suite from Microsoft? Not any time soon, I'm afraid, as Microsoft's "software plus service" vision is just picking up steam. We'll see quite a bit more from Microsoft in this area over the coming year.
