Well, I kind of said as much a few days ago(yes, that was a fairly blatant pat on my own back), but the New York Times does a nice little piece on the debut of Office Live by Microsoft, which explains exactly how its going to differ from Google’s offering:

Microsoft will be paying for stuff most businesses have been paying up to $100 a year now already – domain registration and web hosting (plus some templates that are ‘design’, and some sort of analytics package).

David Pogue puts it this way:

But if you have a small business — if you run a dance studio, sell hand-made bracelets on eBay, deal in old comic books, whatever — at least have the conversation. In Office Live, Microsoft has vaporized a number of obstacles that once stood between tiny start-ups and the big time: the cost and hassle of establishing a proper Web site, the complexity and expense of playing the search-engine ad game, and the headache of maintaining proper books.

Small business all-in-one hosting packages are not new, and are even offered by Domain registration companies now (cough Go Daddy! cough!). The new thing that’s worth repeating (although, I promise for the last time) is how “free” changes the equation for Microsoft.

With the marketing might behind Microsoft, I expect to be hearing about Office Live in the mainstream media for weeks to come; if its stable and as easy to use (but not without its imperfections) as Mr. Pogue makes it out to be, Microsoft might just done more than just grab a metal chair in the fight against Google.

They may have, in fact, Hulked up for real.

[And for those of you whose pop culture knowledge is a bit wanting ,I point you to the Urban Dictionary, for the term "Hulking Up"]

CNet (they do good reporting!) mentions in a test of Office Live yesterday that the Microsoft offerings include not only free hosting and email, but as well to sweeten the pot (and complete the trifecta), free domain registration.

(actually, its more like a quad-recta — other free swag looks to include some basic analytics software).

As I mentioned yesterday, it looks like Microsoft looking towards building a suite of products that extend beyond the usual suite of office type applications.

Reasonable hosting/ service fees … free swag to get you through the door.  What’s the bad in all of this?

More to come I’m sure with the public beta, but because the vast majority of applications use ActiveX, most of their offerings will probably only be useful in Internet Explorer.

Look for the Geek community to poo-poo Microsoft’s attempt at fighting back; I suspect, however, that the attempt at Office Live isn’t really aimed at die hard web app wonks, or really, any serious small business concern who wants to have a web presence.
Its probably aimed at the local mom and pop stores who want to get their feet wet — and if this is the case, they’ll probably do all right. 

[Addendum: Other people to Poo-poo Microsoft attempt?  Probably domain registration companies]

Microsoft’s own suite of web based office type applications will be available to a public beta November 15 — much quicker than some analysts had predicted in the fight for office application supremacy (in the other corner, Google, naturally, with its recently promoted suite of products, including docs, spreadsheets, calendar etc etc).

In addition to the usual modules, of noticeable interest is that it will also be offering

• free hosting for web pages
• integration with Messenger for instant messaging
• as well as integration with their off-line offering Accounting 2007.

And in what may be the equivalent of a metal chair in this cage match, they’re also introducing the ability to purchase online ads to drive traffic, presumably, to that free hosted site. [Courtesy of InfoAge]

… Office Live adManager, which lets users purchase online advertising for Microsoft’s msn.com and Windows Live Search properties, said Baris Cetinok, director of product management for Office Live. And in the next six months, the company also plans to add the ability to let users purchase ads for search engines from Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, and Local.com, he said

It looks as though Microsoft is attempting to differentiate itself in at least one key way — enabling small businesses from the outset to gain an on-line presence through an integrated “office” solution. That is, it seems like its more than Google’s current attempt which currently targets the individual office worker. And, with all its forays outside of search, hosting is one chestnut that Google has yet to have a go at.
Will this help Microsoft get their mojo back? Well, check back after November 15th and we’ll let you know!

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