J-Walk & Associates, Inc.

Excel In A Browser

It's official: Microsoft to offer Office online.

Microsoft announced at the Professional Developers Conference Tuesday that it is finally putting Office apps Word, Excel, and PowerPoint online, but not killing the traditional versions. It's about time Microsoft got with the program here. Online apps offer several advantages over software apps, which Google has been leveraging in its Google Docs suite. Primarily, documents that are created in an online app can be opened up for sharing and collaboration very simply.

Microsoft isn't going to give it away, of course.

As far as pricing, Microsoft will be competing with Google's free Google Docs as well as Zoho's suite. Microsoft cannot afford to give away its core productivity app completely. The company has not revealed its entire pricing strategy, although representatives note that the current Office Live has both free, ad-supported options as well as subscription services.

You can find some screen shots running in Internet Explorer here. As you can see, it implements a quasi-Ribbon interface.

I guess I'm too far removed from the business world. I just don't see what all the excitement is about.