So what is Microsoft Live?

I’m not the only one scratching my head over this one regarding the news that Microsoft is entering the software as a service paradigm. You can see what they are planning over at Micorosft live.com and Office Live.

There has been a lot of speculation lately over what the Microsoft’s “hosting” approach would be and it looks a lot different than what a lot of us imagined. It appears to be a complete change of direction from Microsoft’s traditional focus on cash cows and instead embraces AJAX. Among the cool things are the web based virus scanner, ability to store IE favourites online so they can be accessed anywhere, and all-around Microsoft portal. To be honest, it looks a lot more like Apple’s .mac idea of storing some functionality online (webmail, file sharing, etc) – its very interesting. Either Microsoft is brilliant and they figured out that simplicity and utility are the key to their online success without bloated overfeatured applications… or they are commiting virtual suicide by ignoring the very core of what makes them a dominant vendor. Only time will tell, in the meantime, here is the marketing take:

There are multiple Office Live offerings. Office Live Basics helps a small business establish an online Internet presence including a domain name, a Web site with 30 MB of storage and five Web e-mail accounts at no charge through an advertising-supported model. Office Live also provides a set of subscription-based services with more than 20 business applications to help automate daily business tasks such as project management, sales and collateral management, customer management, expense reports, time and billing management, and secure internal and external collaboration. Built on Windows SharePoint® Services, these applications can be customized and extended to specific customer needs by an extensive Microsoft partner ecosystem.

Obviously everyone expected a hosted Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Live Communication Server and a tie-in with presence. Instead, it is Microsoft’s online properties tied into a cohesive, accessible light-weight platform that is, pardon me while I sip some koolade, on par or better than what Google has to offer. In particular, try adding an RSS feed to your live.com page – you’ll see something that looks like text advertising. Are we really looking at the first signs that MSN is starting to get it?