Rumors abound that Microsoft is launching an online version of Office
Everyone knew it was only a matter of time, but it looks like Microsoft may finally be ready to launch the Office suite of programs into the world of cloud computing.
Google Docs, the online suite of office programs from Google, has been gaining in popularity since it was launched a few years ago. Users have loved that they could work on their documents from any computer with an Internet connection, and with the addition of offline editing capabilities, it seemed like it was really coming in to its own as a real alternative to the standard desktop applications.
As time has worn on, people have been left to wonder how long Microsoft was going to allow some free upstart to eat away at one of the cornerstones of its business, Microsoft Office. It seemed like the company was dragging its feet to do anything online, and when it finally did give some online features, they were very limited. Where were the full online editing capabilities?
Now it seems the inevitable may be happening next week in New Orleans at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference. Rumors began leaking this week that this may be happening, and that has now followed up with cryptic and teasing messages from technology blogger Robert Scoble on his FriendFeed account that something is indeed coming on Monday, but he can’t discuss it due to an embargo. Amidst his fairly annoying “I know something you don’t know”-style missives, you can gather that whatever is being launched is indeed an online product, and it should work in all browsers. He also confirmed it was a core product from the company, so it’s looking fairly certain that it is indeed Office finally making its way in to the world of cloud computing.
One of the most interesting nails in the rumor coffin is the following message on Office.com:
Dear Office.com Users,
As you know from the recent email we sent you, we will be transitioning the operation of your Virtual Office account to ContactOffice.com during the next 30 days.
As part of this transition, on Monday, June 29, 2009, we changed email addresses in the office.com domain to ones in the contactoffice.com domain.
To access your existing account, you will now need to log in at http://office.contactoffice.com
As of Friday, July 31, 2009, Office.com will no longer be available so please be sure to bookmark this URL for future use. Also, if you use POP or IMAP with Office.com you will need to change your settings to pop.contactoffice.net and imap.contactoffice.net respectively.
For new users looking please visit us at http://office.contactoffice.com to register for your free subscription.
We are committed to making this transition as seamless as possible and are working hard to minimize any inconvenience these changes may cause. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me by email at tom@contactoffice.com or by telephone, toll free, at 1-866-675-1776.
Sincerely yours,
Tom Graham and the Office.com Team
Why would a company give up an extremely desirable domain name like Office.com to move to something like ContactOffice.com? Perhaps some company with very deep pockets asked them to move after paying them a nice sum of cash?
For now everything is rumor, and many people are speculating that this is why Google announced its own OS this week in an attempt to get its own thunder prior to the announcement. If the rumors of an online Office manifest this coming week, it will be fairly obvious that Microsoft and Google are truly locked in a dance of death. Google Docs aims at Microsoft Office… Bing takes on Google… Google OS aims at Microsoft… onine Office goes after Google Docs… what’s next is anyone’s guess. There is one thing Microsoft still needs to remember in this latest move: Google Docs will still be free to consumers, so online Office better be pretty freakin’ spectacular.
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July 10th, 2009
Online software has so far been a complete flop. It takes only one bad disruption and the users take their documents offline. The battle for dekstop office suites is going to be a long and hard one.
People want to access their documents as quick as possible without disruption. Online software is not going to give them that reliability.
I would also like to mention some other free alternative desktop office software that I found in the wild.
You should also try SSuite Office for a free office suite. They have a whole range of office suites that are free for download.
Their software also don’t need to run on Java or .NET, so it makes the software very small and efficient.
You can try these links for more information:
http://www.ssuitesoft.com/index.htm
or
http://ssuite5element.webs.com/thefifthelement.htm
July 10th, 2009
“There is one thing Microsoft still needs to remember in this latest move: Google Docs will still be free to consumers”
I’m sure that Microsoft’s management remembers that all too well, along with the fact that Linux is still free, and OpenOffice is still free, and any number of other open source applications are still free (isn’t Firefox going gangbusters!).
Never mind, perhaps Microsoft can draw on their experience as an abusive monopoly and work out how to squeeze money out of their victims by means of software patents.