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Filed under: Office, Web services, Microsoft, web 2.0, Web

Microsoft to launch web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint

MS Excel online
It looks like Microsoft is finally prepared to launch its answer to Google Docs, Zoho Office, and ThinkFree Office. About a year after launching Office Live Workspace, which is really just a service for people to store and share documents created using desktop apps, Microsoft has announced plans to go ahead with true web-based versions of MS Office applications including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

The Office Web applications will reportedly be stripped down versions of the desktop apps. And it looks like Microsoft will offer at least two tiers of service, with an ad-supported version and a subscription based option for business customers.

The next version of Microsoft Office for the desktop will include the ability to synchronize documents over the web for access on the go. So Microsoft clearly expects customers to continue paying for the offline version of Office. Somehow I suspect the company will also set aside at least a few special features that are only available in the desktop version.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Filed under: Internet, Office, Microsoft

Microsoft Office Live Workspace: This is Microsoft's online office strategy?

Office Live Workspace
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.

Filed under: Office, IBM, Open Source

IBM takes on Microsoft with free office software

Lotus Symphony
A week after IBM announced that it would join the OpenOffice.org developer community, the company has launched its own standalone office application suite. Like OpenOffice.org, IBM Lotus Symphony includes a word processor, spreadsheet application, and presentation software. That shouldn't be surprising, as the software was developed using technology from the open source OpenOffice.org.

Lotus Symphony, which is currently in beta is available as a free download. This strikes yet another blow to Microsoft Office's dominance on the office space. Not only are Excel, Word, and PowerPoint facing competition from downloadable programs like OpenOffice.org and Lotus Symphony, but there's increasing pressure from online software like Google Docs & Spreadsheets and Zoho.

Update: After playing with Lotus Symphony for a few minutes, here's what we can tell you. It loads a bit slower than OpenOffice.org, but has a very attractive user interface. There's a tabbed view that lets you open multiple documents without opening multiple instances of the application, which we like. As with any new application, it takes a few moments to acclimate yourself with the toolbars and menus, but overall Lotus Symphony is powerful and pretty intuitive for anyone who's ever used Microsoft Office or OpenOffice.org.

[via The New York Times]

Filed under: Internet, Office, Google

Google PowerPoint clone coming soon?

PresentlyGoogle's much kind of anticipated PowerPoint clone could be almost ready to see the light of day. There've been rumors that Google was working on a slideshow application for ages.

In April, Google bought one company with presentation technology, and another in June. Also in June, Gmail added the ability to view PowerPoint slides sent as e-mail attachments. But while the company has an online word processor and spreadsheet app, presentations have been a no show so far.

Well, rumor is it's coming soon, and it'll be called Presently. Which is kind of funny, since once upon a time Google bought up a web service called Writely and renamed it Google Docs & Spreadsheets. We're guessing Presently is just a temporary name.

We should point out that Google will hardly be the first company with an online office suite that includes a Presentation application. You can already open PowerPoint files or create your own slideshows using Zoho and ThinkFree. But neither of those companies has been nominated as a potential Microsoft killer just yet, so all eyes are on Google to see if a mover and shaker can release an online productivity suite that will truly rival Microsoft Office.

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So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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