Microsoft reinvents Office Live for small biz as 'free'
302149
Except for the subs, that is Redmond said yesterday it has rejigged its Office Live Small Business product to pull in more customers by bringing its three existing paid-for versions under one roof for free.â¦
485839
New version of accounting software for small businesses has also been designed to increase efficiency.
481531
Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it may  offer a free, advertising-supported version of its basic word  processing and spreadsheet software, in an apparent bid to fend  off a nascent challenge from Google Inc. in the business  software market.
306289
App-free Windows coming to a poor community near you... Software giant Microsoft is to abruptly ditch the use of Office through its popular global community refurbishment scheme.â¦
438211
Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O said on   Thursday it may offer a free, advertising-supported version of   its basic word processing and spreadsheet software, in an   apparent bid to fend off a nascent challenge from Google Inc.   GOOG.O in the business software market.
174183
You might think the folks at Microsoft (MSFT) have bigger fish to fry than a tiny Bay Area startup named ThinkFree. The company, which offers Web-based word-processing and spreadsheet programs, counts about 60,000 active users, none of whom even pay for the service yet.
69044
Microsoft announced its free Live Search 411 service, a directory assistance line with more features than the average local directory listing.
569974
Microsoft is considering giving away its basic Microsoft Works word processing and spreadsheet software, aimed at preventing a possible challenge in the space from Google. But can it do so without hurting sales of Microsoft Office?
29545
PC Magazine - Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it may offer a free, advertising-supported version of its basic word processing and spreadsheet software, in an apparent bid to fend off a nascent challenge from Google Inc. in the business software market.
483998
Microsoft added Office Live Workspace, a&#160;program for uploading and sharing documents online, to a suite of services specifically geared for users at academic institutions on Monday.The company announced the integration of the service into its Microsoft Live@edu Suite at a symposium for higher-education customers on its Redmond, Washington, campus. Live@edu is a suite of Web-based services aimed at giving universities the basics for creating an online community. Microsoft launched the suite in March 2005 and said more than 400 schools are currently using it.In addition to Office Live Workspace integration, Microsoft also has increased e-mail storage of Live@edu from 2GB to 5GB, and added up to 1GB of password-protected online storage space. The company also has updated the suite with an IP address whitelisting service to ensure e-mails sent from university mail services don&#39;t get caught in a recipient&#39;s spam filter.On Oct. 1, Microsoft unveiled a beta-registration program for Office Live Workspace, a Web-based extension of Microsoft Office that lets people access, share, and collaborate on documents online. Microsoft is facing new competition in the market for office applications from rivals like Google that are offering free Web-based alternatives to Office, and so it is diversifying its own offerings in the space with more online services.People interested in the Office Live Workspace beta can sign up online. The service will be available for free later this year.
255928
Microsoft Office, software for creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations, is seeing its growth slow. Microsoft isn't pleased.
59662
Microsoft is offering a new subscription model to small businesses that will allow them to use the company's software for less cost than the currently available licensing model.
406573
Corel Corp. has released a free service pack to WordPerfect Office X3 that updates the business suite so it's compatible with Windows Vista.
394030
(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has added the ability for subscribers of its Office Live small-business hosted service to purchase paid-search advertising from Ask.com from directly within the service. Now small businesses using the Office Live service can use the adManager feature of the product, which is in beta, to purchase search-based keyword advertising from Ask Sponsored Listings, Microsoft said. Customers already can purchase paid-search advertising from the Microsoft's MSN network and Live Search from within the product. Ask Sponsored Listings is an automated, open-auction system that allows for the purchase and management of pay-per-click and contextual advertising campaigns on a publisher network that includes Ask.com. According to the site, 48,000 advertisers use the system to bid on more than 25 million keywords. Last week at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver, a company manager said Microsoft would begin adding the ability to purchase ads for third-party search engines to Office Live, which gives small businesses tools for building a Web site as well as Web-based e-mail, instant messaging, collaboration, and customer relationship management, in the next two months. Ask.com is the first such partnership. Microsoft unveiled Office Live in November 2005 as part of a broad strategy to offer more hosted and Web-based services, and the company has high hopes for the offering. Last week at the WPC, Microsoft Chief COO Kevin Turner said that the company expects it to eventually become on of its top-selling products, ranking near the top of the heap with the Windows client OS and Office desktop suite.
519276
Software giant offers Windows and Office free for a year to small businesses still feeling the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
715460
Microsoft outlined a new feature that will be included in Office 2008 for Mac.
378376
While Google is busy building a Web-based productivity suite and Microsoft dips its toes into the online waters, ThinkFree is moving in the opposite direction, releasing a beta version of its online office suite that works offline as well.