News

Microsoft Touts Online Windows, Office services

November 1, 2005

Users won't have to download and install the software on their computers now.

Microsoft Corp. today took the wraps off a new initiative through which it aims to deliver more of its software and services over the Internet.

Windows Live and Office Live will give users much of the functionality of the company's two most profitable products but without requiring them to install and maintain the software on a computer hard drive, said Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie, a longtime software services pioneer who recently joined Microsoft.

The announcement, made at a news event in San Francisco , underscores how much Microsoft has turned its attention toward the Internet and the challenge offered by hosted, software-as-a-service upstarts such as Google Inc. and Salesforce.com Inc., which make most of their revenues from selling ads or subscriptions.

Still, Microsoft officials emphasized they are not yet ready to completely abandon the packaged software model that has served the company so well.

Taking many of the features from Microsoft's MSN portal and repackaging them in a spare, Google-like interface, Windows Live lets users -- generally expected to be consumers – pick the services they wish to add, such as their e-mail, RSS feeds from favorite blogs, Web sites and bookmarks.

Other features of Windows Live include a Virtual Earth map program that challenges MapQuest and Google Maps, an improved Windows Messenger that unifies users' contacts lists -- including those in e-mail and instant messaging systems -- and a Web-based e-mail system with an Outlook-like interface that will gradually replace Hotmail and offers improved security.