[photopress:billgatesmoney.jpg,full,left]You know those scams, mostly from the late 90s, that went around advertising that if this email is forwarded 1000 times, Bill Gates will give everyone in the sender’s list $100,000? Yah, it was bunk, but this isn’t: if you’re a beta tester for Office Live Workspace, Microsoft is going to give you $100,000. Well, not all to one person, but it has 30,000 prizes to give out from now till May 11, including Xboxen, smartphones, and Zunes. So sign up, beta testers, and get good. Sign-up page [Microsoft.com] → Read More
[photopress:pivennnn.jpg,full,center] I’d like to echo Laptop’s synopsis of last night’s Microsoft event (fact: “event” is journalese for party) that, ostensibly, launched Office Live. (It’s a bit like Google Docs. In fact, it’s a lot like Google Docs.) First, Jeremy Piven was there… for approximately 18 seconds. He’s sorta on the short side. He uses a BlackBerry Curve, for you nosey celebrity types. But now for the gossip. So when you go to these type of events it’s mainly writers from all types of media (bloggers, magazine folks and so forth) and a few hangers-on. Not last night. Apparently Microsoft has money to burn because something like 20-30 percent of the people in attendance were hired models. Microsoft (well, its Office PR firm) brought in the beautiful people by the busload. One of the so-called beautiful people (who I rated a 24 on the 1-30 hotness scale—I’ll explain it some other day) was actually a Columbia medical school student. Needless to say, when I was asking these model types what the event was for, they pretty much all replied “some computer thing.” Some computer thing indeed. Jeremy Piven Can Talk Tech [Laptop] Office Live [Microsoft] → Read More
Microsoft Office Live went into beta today. The service was first revealed at a Microsoft event last fall – you can see my post about it here. This is not an online version of Microsoft Office. It is a set of online tools for businesses to help them have a web and email presence at a very low cost (starting at free with ad support). The core tools are a free non-microsoft domain name, website and up to 50 email accounts with 2 GB of storage each. For a small company needing a informational website, it will be great. Given that the domain name, website building, hosting and email will all be free, this will be very attractive to a small business. For customers needing more, Microsoft will offer a suite of additional productivity applications – 22 in all were announced last fall. They will also support third party applications – ADP’s payroll software was shown integrated into Office Live. A set of APIs will be available for third parties to add their application functionality into Office Live. Among the additional applications is an office document collaboration tool. You can share an office document real time with others, allowing them to view and edit it. Impressive. Office Live should become a starting point for small businesses wanting a web presence and a general platform to run their business operations. If you are interested in participating in the beta, sign up at the main Office Live site. It is currently only open to U.S. businesses – the full service will launch later this year. → Read More
The other product announced yesterday at the Microsoft Preview event in San Francisco was Office Live. Office Live will launch in Q1 2006. My raw notes from the event are on CrunchNotes, and my profile on Windows Live went up last night. Rajesh Jha presented the product. Office Live is not an online version of Office. Office Live is a set of free, ad-supported productivity tools for businesses that will really help the small guys. The service will also have a premium subscription product that will have “less” ads, according to Bill Gates yesterday. The core tools are a free non-microsoft domain name, website and up to 50 email accounts with 2 GB of storage each. Rajesh created a new website in the demo, adding content and images, in a minute or so. For a small company needing a informational website, it will be great. Given that the domain name, website building, hosting and email will all be free, this will be very attractive to a small business. For customers needing more, Microsoft will offer a suite of additional productivity applications – 22 in all were announced yesterday. They will also support third party applications – ADP’s payroll software was shown integrated into Office Live. A set of APIs will be available for third parties to add their application functionality into Office Live. Among the additional applications was an office document collaboration tool. You can share an office document real time with others, allowing them to view and edit it. Impressive. Office Live should become a starting point for small businesses wanting a web presence and a general platform to run their business operations. If Microsoft can hold on to them as they grow by offering additional services, it will become a lucrative product for them. And the ad inventory they will generate from page views will also be highly valuable to advertisers selling into the small business space. There is a real chance Office Live will be one of the big revenue generators for Microsoft, both from advertising and subscription fees. → Read More
Microsoft is announcing Windows Live and Office Live, both online services, right now (10 am PST) at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. I am publishing my notes and pictures real time at CrunchNotes. Windows Live is “live” at Live.com. → Read More
