Finally getting with the program: Microsoft to offer Office online
Microsoft announced at the Professional Developers Conference Tuesday that it is finally putting Office apps Word, Excel, and PowerPoint online, but not killing the traditional versions. It's about time Microsoft got with the program here. Online apps offer several advantages over software apps, which Google has been leveraging in its Google Docs suite. Primarily, documents that are created in an online app can be opened up for sharing and collaboration very simply.
If Microsoft Office were not a nearly ubiquitous piece of software, chances are the company would have added an online version earlier, due to another bit benefit of the platform: Your user base grows virally. All it takes is for a user to share a document and the app comes along with it, for free. With paid and installed software, obviously, there's a big barrier to adoption.
All is not peaches and cream with online apps, though. As a rule, they have less robust feature sets and interfaces than installable apps. Although many see that as a benefit, it's an easy thing to market against. People new to a word processor may adopt and stick with a product like Google Docs, but anyone with a few years of usage history in Office is going to find it harder to make the move.
Even among online suite users, there is often a split in usage behavior: People will use an app like Word to compose most or some of their documents, and then import them into Google Docs if they need to share them. Or they'll use Google Docs for some types of composing (documents destined for the Web) but not others (mail merge letters or documents being created for print). And this is where Microsoft has the upper hand. If (big if) the company manages to build online versions of its Office apps that complement its installed apps, it can obviate the problems with the split-use model, gracefully letting users float between versions of the apps as they want or need. In a demo at the PDC, Microsoft showed, among other things, two users working on a single OneNote 14 notebook. One was on a desktop app, the other on a browser. The changes on one were syncing over to the other. This is how apps should work: users should not care if they are online or off.
Microsoft, though, does not have a track record of building strong online/offline apps. The Web version of Outlook, Outlook Web Access, is a pale and poor cousin of the desktop app. And Microsoft has already said that the new online apps will not have all the features of the desktop apps.
As far as pricing, Microsoft will be competing with Google's free Google Docs as well as Zoho's suite. Microsoft cannot afford to give away its core productivity app completely. The company has not revealed its entire pricing strategy, although representatives note that the current Office Live has both free, ad-supported options as well as subscription services.
Although Microsoft will be late to the game in offering an online app suite when Office Online beta shows up in 2009, I do not believe it is too late. Google and Zoho have softened up the market for online apps but there are still plenty of people locked into Microsoft Office. This new direction brings Microsoft into an emerging market, which will then see a very big uptick in competition. This is going to be very cool to watch, and beneficial for users.
Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe. 
What this means is that for example, my wife could update a document on her desktop at home and I'll see the changes a few seconds later on my online version of the document. Alternatively, I could make changes on the online version and she would see my changes on her desktop a few seconds later.
I know Google Docs has this feature - I've used it. But their Ajax implementation on the browser is slow and unreliable (it's not Google's fault, it's just that you can do a lot less on the browser vs the desktop).
At the PDC (www.microsoftpdc.com), during the keynote event this morning, there were many demos of Word and Excel sharing data across both desktop and online versions.
With Microsoft Azure and Live Mesh this is going to become a "standard" feature for developers using Microsoft technologies. Don't expect this from your PHP/Linux/Mac developers - we Microsoft developers are using power drills, while they are still using screwdrivers.
Emmanuel Huna
www.ehuna.org
The nice thing about Linux and their screwdrivers is that they do embrace the idea of us owning our own data. Your power drill takes a propriatary power source. Anybody can use a screwdriver. Amazing how some things just work.
/P
2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F1FC413C-6D89-4F15-991B-63B07BA5F2E5&displaylang=en
This was originally a feature that was included in the earlier version of Word 2007 but there was some legal reason that forced Microsoft to make it an add-in (some pending lawsuit from Adobe).
It's ok to be a Linux fanatic, just don't be a moron and do some research before spewing anti-Windows hate.
Try again.
Why its now version the original time when it should have been (anyone remember NetDocs?)... who knows... but whatever someone finally woke up.
Also, given the plethora of .doc -> PDF converters that have been out there since 2003 or so? Your argument is weak.
Maybe you should take your own advice, and do some research yourself before letting your knee jerk like that? ;)
<a href="http://www.ulteo.com/home/ooo">http://www.ulteo.com/home/ooo</a>
It includes PDF export and all the OpenOffice.org features, plus real time desktop sharing capabilities.
Get a clue already, will you?
1) prior interfaces with other software WILL NOT work as predicted (i.e. Calyx Point)
2) they're slow (even slower than the bloated desktop versions)
3) fewer features (as mentioned in the article)
4) forever changing interfaces (i.e., ongoing learning curve)
5) security issues (minor risk but addressing it will slow app and increase learning curve)
There are obvious advantages that have been mentioned. I believe there's a place for online apps but don't ignore the desktop stuff in the process.
As for Linux stuff, we still live in a MS world. Open office is at best a tinker toy to a power user. It just doesn't measure up. And before you start spouting market acceptance, remember it has been competing on the basis of price ($0 versus $700) for 10+ years. If it was really any good, it would OWN the market by now.
XP rivals any Linux OS for stability. As for compatibility and number of useful apps available, Linux totally sucks in comparison. In terms of cost, the OS is free because it costs so much to actually make it work. I've tried both directions and Windows is cheaper.
* OpenOffice was a project named StarOffice. Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Office
* define "power user".
* You conveniently neglect to mention that for the majority of the 8 years that OOo/StarOffice existed, MSFT had the file format for *.doc (and *.xls, and etc) specifically hidden and obscured.
Your last statement was an awesome laugh... XP has nowhere near the stability of anything save against its precdecessors.
Apple already has a similar feature for file sharing between an owner's desktops & portables available with its Me.com subscriptions which has similar limitations.
The problem is the number of attacks against Microsoft machines are greater because more people and more companies use them. If Mac or Linux was the leading OS rather than Windows, I wouldn't be surprised that the same people will be complaining about the Apple or the Linux platform having a "bad" track record. You cannot compare the track records because that would drag in a second variable, the number of attacks. It would be an unfair comparison.
See here's the Catch 22 in the tech industry. If you're too successful, people complain about you because it apparently is your fault that everybody uses your product and that lures attackers. If you're not successful enough, people also complain about you saying it's your fault that the product is subpar.
Also, Google docs isn't garbage, it's saved me many times when I'm working on stuff at school and have to take it home. I forgot my flash drive, oh no. What if my school blocks email? Double oh no. But what if I upload it to google docs? Bingo!
- by mtig November 10, 2008 1:02 PM PST
- @Penguin, so MS had the .doc as proprietary? Why should that hinder a product that is FREE? If it's what it's craced up to be, free should sell itself. It just isn't worth bothering with for anyone that needs to integrate their office software with other processes. And if I go to Linux, 2/3rds of my apps go away. I get to write them from scratch. That should only cost me around $2 million - quite literally. Or are you volunteering to write all my stuff "open source" for free? I have used many of the open source stuff. Some of it's very good for the price but when you need something really serious, you have to pay for it. The last I checked, even genius programmers had to eat something besides virtual food.
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