Microsoft focuses on web applications

These ambitious Microsoft initiatives promise to bring new tools and services on the web platform for businesses and individual users.

Are you ready to use a browser instead of a familiar Windows screen? Microsoft hopes that users will do this by using web-based applications and services called Live, and intending to compete with similar products from Google and Yahoo. Whether this attempt is successful or not is still unknown, but in the short term, Live provides users with some useful new applications.

Microsoft will label Live on a few products with web-based components this year. The first applications that can be mentioned are Windows Live and Office Live (in different testing stages), able to solve everything from location search to email and instant messaging. . These are not the first initiatives of Microsoft about web-based services, but it is what it expects most.

In particular, Windows Live includes a new email program and IM message, plus a customizable Live.com homepage (such as a portal) that allows users to put online blogs (blogs), RSS feeds. and Gadgets applications (requires Internet Explorer). Meanwhile, Office Live provides many tools for small offices, from supporting creating a simple website (free but with advertising) to registering a certain package as required. Microsoft hopes that other software developers will create additional applications (applets) for Windows Live and Office Live.

LIVE.COM

Even if you don't want to use Live.com as a platform to work, you will probably also enjoy some of the applications on this website. For new users, it is the free email service Windows Live Mail that has been replaced and improved for the previous Hotmail service. According to Microsoft, Live Mail will work faster because it is built on the hottest web programming technology: Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) (refer to "Ajax Programming Techniques" with search ID A0512_124) , allowing web applications to have the look and way of operating in the same way as the desktop application. In addition, Live Mail supports mailbox sizes up to 2GB compared to Hotmail's 250MB. Meanwhile, Live Messenger, a new IM messaging application that lets you share documents (automatically updated using peer-to-peer networking technology) with other Live Messenger users.

New "mini" Windows Live Gadgets (microsoftgadgets.com/gallery) look like Apple's Dashboard utility or Yahoo's Konfabulator Widgets. Gadgets will be able to work on Windows Vista (like a floating object on the screen or you can anchor them on the Sidebar) as well as in Internet Explorer. Microsoft hopes to encourage third parties to continue to develop Gadgets.

In addition, the search service and the Windows Live Local map (formerly known as MSN Virtual Earth, refer back to the article "Satellite map on PC", ID: 0509_16) can display the map in a top-down format. with a 45-degree viewing angle based on satellite imagery, along with directions and related information available in the yearbook. Satellite images from Google and Yahoo services are just a face-to-face image from the top (only the whole house is seen).

In June, Microsoft will release Windows OneCare Live, a security and anti-virus service for (service fee of $ 50 per year for 3 computers). Alternatively, you can consult the list of Windows Live projects at www.ideas.live.com.

OFFICE LIVE

As expected, Office Live will appear this fall, targeting companies with less than 10 employees and often without a specialized IT department.

Most notably, Office Live allows you to create a company website with 5 email accounts (your chosen domain name), through which Microsoft can insert appropriate advertisements into this site.

This free website is not unique because Yahoo also offers free small business websites since early 2005 (). Similar to Microsoft, Yahoo provides website design and business email tools (although Office Live's test site looks a bit more creative) as well as web hosting (hosting) and ecommerce. Overall, according to market research firm IDC, it is still too early to determine which services are better.

OPTIONAL NO ADVERTISING

Another option without ads is Office Live Collaboration, which offers 20 web applications such as business tracking and project management utilities, plus the ability to access collaboration features such as protected websites. password protection. The premium version of Office Live Essentials will be added with a Web-based Front Page that helps you design your website and support up to 50 email accounts.

At this point, Microsoft has not yet set a specific price for these services, and don't expect to get the same powerful features as the ability to manage contacts like Quickbooks of Intuit or Sage's ACT. Office Live beta, offers several template-based applications for businesses. For example, the "Competition Tracker" feature stores competitor information (employee number, date of establishment, etc.). If you are in business and have used a complicated contact management or project management tool, perhaps this Microsoft product will not be very attractive.

Obviously web applications will bring more benefits: you can run the application from anywhere if you can access the Internet, regardless of the upgrade. However, you must put your trust in Microsoft servers and can only export data to Excel or Outlook.

If assessing what is available, Live cannot change the electronics that we think will happen soon. At this point, new applications are still unable to fulfill the web promises that will be where the software starts to break through. Even if it is Microsoft, we still have to wait and see.

PC World USA 4/2006