When OpenOffice.org released a series of free software, Microsoft’s Office productivity software didn’t feel a thing as it continued its powerful hold in the market on these types of software. Then Google released their online version of the office productivity software. Its ability to share information coupled with the ease of creating documents was also taken to the next level. Microsoft may have been concerned a little bit since it’s just online and most offices will still prefer productivity tools offline or pre-installed in their computers.
But Google’s set of web only software was just the fire starter. There are now web-based software that offers the same function with the popular office tools. Aside from Google, Zoho.com is becoming increasingly popular as a web based office solution. YouOS.com is also coming out as a major player using the powers of Ajax and AjaxWindows that literally functions as your computer desktop, only web-based.
Realizing the trend of new productivity software going online, Microsoft also announced of their version of online office productivity called the Office LiveWorkspace. The creation of the web based program could either be because of popularity of this type of online services, or another marketing stint. However the program is only in Beta version – available only to limited people. But the latest word on the productivity suite is that this program will only enable you to share the programs you create. You will still use MS Office to create and edit files before it can be up-loaded to their online system. Once you’ve finished editing them, all it can do is to share files to other users.
On the other hand, Adobe is also looking to launch their web based version of office productivity. The project has now the codename of Share – also on its Beta version. The main difference of the product is that instead of running in Ajax, it’s going to run purely on Adobe flash. Unfortunately, the Beta version also has a limited number of users so if you’re thinking of signing up to try the product, you’re too late. But you can enter your e-mail if you want to be updated when the stable version is launched.
With this development, we are now on the verge of going online for office productivity. But the main feature of these web-based office softwares is that these services are offered for free. Instead of freely distributing the product, they opted to offer their services online. Even though the student edition for the MS Office suite is already at $50.00, still money is money.
For now, let’s wait for these two giants to come out of Beta version or when they start accepting new accounts to try out their services. Don’t worry; it’s going to be faster this time as there are now office tools being downloaded online for free. They will work really fast on these things before they will run out of customers, or a large percentage of users will be swayed to other office applications. Only time will tell if the MS Office tools will be knocked out as a leader but for now we just have to sit and wait as evaluations of the programs will come more and more.
