MS Office Live?

Does anyone know where MS is trying to go with this Office Live stuff? The first time I heard about it, it was going to be an Internetted version of Office (log on to a website for a fee, and use Office online) which sounded like the worst idea ever.

Today's MS download notifications have a link to the Office Live (IE only) page... and I'm intrigued :D

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Microsoft Office Live Basics:
Free during and after beta

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MS giving away domain names? Server space? Que Pasa?

The sign-up page says that "[i]f you are selected as a beta participant, you will receive your e-mail invitation and unique product key in 2-4 weeks"

Yeah, looks intriguing,

However they plan to fund the cost of giving away domain names and server space by using targeted advertising on your site:

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Q: With an advertising funded service will I be barraged with banner ads?

A: No. We use a computer-driven process to help ensure that ads are relevant to your business' needs. No one ever reads your information to target ads and none of your information is ever provided to advertisers.

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I suppose it depends on how they place these ads as to whether or not its any good, however knowing microsoft they will have this sorted.

The only query that comes to mind is if this is aimed at small businesses, and the ads will be targeted, so i assume that the ads that appear will be matched to your content, then surely there is a large possibility that your site will contain ads for other companies that are in direct competion with you...

One to think on :D

Here's the marketing blurb:

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Office Live offers small-business customers an opportunity to experience new Internet-based business services. Office Live combines the power of software with the accessibility of the Internet to offer advanced, Web-based capabilities for small companies that want an online presence. Office Live is designed to give small businesses the same advantages as larger enterprises by getting them up and running on the Internet quickly and easily.

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I'm guessing it'll be some sort of hosted service for things like Office Communicator and Groove, much like you can rent a hosted Sharepoint site now.

Ok, you work on documents and things on line and then save them to your computer, right? I think I read something about this, and one criticism of it is that you would be entrusting your documents to Microsoft. I'm not saying they would do anything wrong, but still, it looks like it would be a risk.

If these types of web-based apps take off, our power-hungry computers could easily be reduced to thin clients. It would be great for consumers and developing countries, since PCs could become cheaper and thus even more disposable than they are now. I wouldn't mind having a cigar box sized, slient PC that I do all of my office/web work with, but I'll still want my high-end machine for games.

Even powerful machines may be obsolete for gaming in the future, though. I read awhile ago that someone came up with a way to play games on a remote machine over the internet. If that's true, then Citrix and Terminal Services may get a run for their money.