Microsoft reveals Office Live Workspace (OLW)

Microsoft extended its web strategy by unveiling Office Live Workspace (beta), an online sharing repository for Office documents. Not what many thought would be Microsoft’s answer to Google Docs, this service actually extends Office to the online space.

To use OLW, you need to have a registered version of MS Office 2003 or 2007. The site provides 250MB of space to share documents with other users, though does not have the ability for the user to create or edit documents. Microsoft says OLW will play nice with other office suites too, though there probably will be some compatibility issues.

It’s a smart play by MS as users will still need to own a registered copy of Office as will any other users who they may want to share documents with.

Personally I think OpenOffice used together with Google Docs can do the same job with these added advantages over OLW:

1. Neither I nor the users I share docs with have to pay anything as both OpenOffice and Google Docs are free to use
2. Google Docs doesn’t have a cap on space as opposed to OLW’s 250MB which won’t be enough for serious users.

Which would you use and why: MS Office/OLW or OpenOffice/Google Docs for your business? Post your comments below…

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