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As we've pointed out time and again, online office suites like Google Docs and Zoho are not complete Microsoft Office replacements. They don't have all the features, but they also don't have the high price. And for many users, not only are online office suites cheaper (as in free), but they offer up a few extra useful features like the ability to share documents with anyone over the internet.

We've been expecting Microsoft to respond with an online office suite of its own, perhaps built on MS Works. But now that Microsoft has announced its online office strategy, we have to say we're a bit underwhelmed.

Office Live Workspace is a free web-based feature that lets Microsoft Office users share their documents online. In other words, you'll need to pay for Microsoft Office and use it to create documents on your desktop, but you can share them online. With Google Docs, you can hop onto any web browser to pull up all your documents and/or create new text, HTML, spreadsheet, or presentation documents. Office Live Workspace just lets you access files you've already created. In other words, it's more of a Scribd/Docstoc competitor than a Zoho/ThinkFree competitor.

If you want to sign up for the Office Live Workspace beta, Microsoft is accepting applications. The beta itself probably won't start for another month.