14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft Office Live beta is going to be released in just days. Microsoft?s ?Live Era? will have finally arrived and users will start giving feedback to the software giant to see if they?ve hit the right spot. They are banking on the fact that their delicate composition of software + services will touch the hearts of many consumers and benefit them directly. The interactivity of the two will either make or break this software, so let us see whether Ray Ozzie was right with his ?service? approach to software.
Microsoft Office Live isn?t a version of Microsoft but rather it is a set of software services that Microsoft is developing as extensions to its Microsoft Office product. Initial Office Live testing started the first week of January as Microsoft had already started sending out invitations. Liveside, an independent site dedicated to tracking Microsoft's Live efforts has more information on the participants and the focus of the software.
On the site itself, postings from students and customers are widely varied, Chris, a UK student states that "a free Web site with your own domain name, free hosting, online business applications, e-mail and more" along with easy access to 'your company e-mail, customer and project information from almost any Internet-connected computer' this is one Live service that is definitely not targeted at the home consumer."
Thus making people to believe that Microsoft will push the product more toward small businesses at first than home users. According to some other posts, Microsoft will be incorporating some of the features of its Small Business Accounting product and Windows Live Domains service into Office Live as well. In November, Microsoft released information that Office Live will be split into three versions of Office Live: Basics, Essentials and Collaboration.