So, I hung out with the Office Live team last week and got the skinny. Office Live isn’t what you think it is. It wasn’t what I thought it was (I was thinking it’d be an internet version of the Office Suite like PowerPoint, Excel, Word). It’s not. Get that out of your mind. And damn the marketers who are extending the Office brand. We love brand extension here, but that’s another debate for another day.
So, what is Office Live? It’s aimed at very small businesses. Think of my prototypical small-town plumber. Maybe has three employees. But needs a Web site that he or she can edit. Some email addresses. And a few other services to help run their business (place to keep documents online which will be backed up automatically).
That’s pretty much what it is. The LiveSide blog has more.
So you’ve basically recreated .Mac and/or FolderShare?
Wow, that’s innovative.
So you’ve basically recreated .Mac and/or FolderShare?
Wow, that’s innovative.
[...] Looks like “Office Live” is nothing but Microsoft hosted “Sharepoint”? Check out Scoble’s blog [...]
Robert,
For the audience they are targeting, this might be perfect. The OfficeLive group should check out what SpotRunner (www.spotrunner.com) is doing in the area of TV commercials for small business. It might make a nice strategic partner or acquisition to roll into this model.
Robert,
For the audience they are targeting, this might be perfect. The OfficeLive group should check out what SpotRunner (www.spotrunner.com) is doing in the area of TV commercials for small business. It might make a nice strategic partner or acquisition to roll into this model.
[...] Hierzu haben wir zumindest im Forum von Office Live nicht viel gesehen, wobei wir zugegebenermassen aber auch nicht viel Zeit mit der Suche verbracht haben. Erst später ist uns bei Robert Scoble aufgefallen, dass nicht nur wir, sondern auch einflussreiche Jungs von Microsoft dachten, es handele sich bei Office Live um Web-Editionen der bekannten Office-Suite. Was also ist Office Live? Office Live besteht, nach dem, was wir gesehen haben, in der einfachsten (”Basics”) Version aus einem Domain-Namen, einer bis zu 30 MByte grossen Homepage, fünf Email-Konten mit total 2 GB Speicherplatz und einem Webdesign-Tool. Während das Einstiegspaket werbefinanziert und damit für den Benutzer kostenfrei sein soll, werden Office Live Collaboration und Office Live Essentials auf Basis einer monatlichen Gebühr erhältlich sein. [...]
So, what is Office Live? Some sharewareish web portal .Mac-badly-smudged-photocopy copycat aimed at EXTREMELY small biz’s? This from an ENTERPRISE infrastructure software company?
OfficeLive SAYS hosted Office, you are dead in the water with that marketing. If you even have to pose the question, it’s game over. But what REALLY is OfficeLive? Just Ray Ozzie playing collaborative tiddlywinks with webby tricks on a ad-sponsored binge-fest, with a small unfocused team, as Microsoft got all uppity Google-spooked.
Let’s be honest for once…
So, what is Office Live? Some sharewareish web portal .Mac-badly-smudged-photocopy copycat aimed at EXTREMELY small biz’s? This from an ENTERPRISE infrastructure software company?
OfficeLive SAYS hosted Office, you are dead in the water with that marketing. If you even have to pose the question, it’s game over. But what REALLY is OfficeLive? Just Ray Ozzie playing collaborative tiddlywinks with webby tricks on a ad-sponsored binge-fest, with a small unfocused team, as Microsoft got all uppity Google-spooked.
Let’s be honest for once…
Yeah…so now, you can’t even say “What is Microsoft Office” in less than a page of small type.
This is the perfect example of what’s hurting Microsoft: Lack of focus. At this point, I think Office is the bit-bucket for anything that’s not Windows. I’ll bet that even the Office PM couldn’t list every product that is a part of Office, or that has been clumped in with Office in one breath, and possibly two.
lame.
Yeah…so now, you can’t even say “What is Microsoft Office” in less than a page of small type.
This is the perfect example of what’s hurting Microsoft: Lack of focus. At this point, I think Office is the bit-bucket for anything that’s not Windows. I’ll bet that even the Office PM couldn’t list every product that is a part of Office, or that has been clumped in with Office in one breath, and possibly two.
lame.
Office Live is Office – if you remember that Office is a lot more than Word and Excel. Office Live is *SharePoint* live. The competition is SalesForce’s new AppExchange and ISVs building you custom productivity applications in hosted SharePoint (and it will be a great lead generator for that).
Office Live is Office – if you remember that Office is a lot more than Word and Excel. Office Live is *SharePoint* live. The competition is SalesForce’s new AppExchange and ISVs building you custom productivity applications in hosted SharePoint (and it will be a great lead generator for that).
Scoble,
Why is that LiveSide site using Google AdSense? I assume it isn’t an official Microsoft site but in that case why do you need to link to their explanation in order for people to understand Office Live?
Scoble,
Why is that LiveSide site using Google AdSense? I assume it isn’t an official Microsoft site but in that case why do you need to link to their explanation in order for people to understand Office Live?
Well I must say I’m pretty dissapointed, it is not what I expected at all, here are a few points I would like to express:
1) ‘Office’ live theres is no ‘office’ in this product! it is just a stupid branding excersise being performed by the clueless ‘suits’ (where is word,excel etc..) buy them a second hand copy of the clue train manafesto and lend them your master text for ‘Naked conversations’ pulll them back into conversational marketing rather than bullshiting company press fodder from a high, nobody buys it anymore. This has nothing to do with Office as we know it!!!!!
2) In the tools it does provide it doesnt seem to include a blog!! get in there scoble sort them out.
3) It is aimed squarley at a market segment of micro businesses – 10 people or less. How come it only offers 5 free email addresses then ? do my other 5 employees not get email addresses? I just don’t get it. It sound like they are actually targetting small micro businesses (5 employees or less not 10 or less). Besides I think this whole idea of aiming it for a certain size business is an artificial barrier designed to prevent damage to existing product group revenues within Microsoft, rather than the natural scalable size of the product suite itself.
4) Only available in the U.S. that just says Microsoft doesn’t care about the rest of the world’s opinions for design and functional testing. Not a good message.
5) Just when you think Microsoft is turning the corner they slip back into the old mode, this just damages all that goodness that yourself and other Microsoft bloggers have built up.
Once again let me just say how dissapointed I am at these announcements, I expected more from the product and the messenger.
regards
Al
Well I must say I’m pretty dissapointed, it is not what I expected at all, here are a few points I would like to express:
1) ‘Office’ live theres is no ‘office’ in this product! it is just a stupid branding excersise being performed by the clueless ‘suits’ (where is word,excel etc..) buy them a second hand copy of the clue train manafesto and lend them your master text for ‘Naked conversations’ pulll them back into conversational marketing rather than bullshiting company press fodder from a high, nobody buys it anymore. This has nothing to do with Office as we know it!!!!!
2) In the tools it does provide it doesnt seem to include a blog!! get in there scoble sort them out.
3) It is aimed squarley at a market segment of micro businesses – 10 people or less. How come it only offers 5 free email addresses then ? do my other 5 employees not get email addresses? I just don’t get it. It sound like they are actually targetting small micro businesses (5 employees or less not 10 or less). Besides I think this whole idea of aiming it for a certain size business is an artificial barrier designed to prevent damage to existing product group revenues within Microsoft, rather than the natural scalable size of the product suite itself.
4) Only available in the U.S. that just says Microsoft doesn’t care about the rest of the world’s opinions for design and functional testing. Not a good message.
5) Just when you think Microsoft is turning the corner they slip back into the old mode, this just damages all that goodness that yourself and other Microsoft bloggers have built up.
Once again let me just say how dissapointed I am at these announcements, I expected more from the product and the messenger.
regards
Al
Oh and P.S. i did’nt mean you personally when i put ‘messenger’ I mean ‘Microsoft communications central’ and whoever seems to be overseeing it..
Oh and P.S. i did’nt mean you personally when i put ‘messenger’ I mean ‘Microsoft communications central’ and whoever seems to be overseeing it..
[...] http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2006/02/14/office-live-released-to-micro-businesses/ [...]
[...] So what’s with the Office moniker? There had been some expectations, despite all the clues to the contrary, that there were to be online versions of at least some of the Office products. Those hopes were dashed. Microsoft’s Robert Scoble: Office Live isn’t what you think it is. It wasn’t what I thought it was (I was thinking it’d be an internet version of the Office Suite like PowerPoint, Excel, Word). It’s not. Get that out of your mind. And damn the marketers who are extending the Office brand. We love brand extension here, but that’s another debate for another day. [...]
If Office Live is really Sharepoint Live, I have a rather, well, radical idea:
Call it what it is: Sharepoint Live.
nahh, that’s CRAZY talk.
If Office Live is really Sharepoint Live, I have a rather, well, radical idea:
Call it what it is: Sharepoint Live.
nahh, that’s CRAZY talk.
The registation page didn’t allow me to accept an agreement by typing my name. It means I don’t care anymore…
The registation page didn’t allow me to accept an agreement by typing my name. It means I don’t care anymore…
Office Live is not MS Office (and a lacy keyboard)
In today’s IT Blogwatch, we look at Office Live — is it alive or dead? Not to mention eat and type off the same tablecloth …
[...] The biggest issue I see with Office Live though is the branding – are they trying to fool consumers into thinking this is some form of online Microsoft Office? You just know some people will sign up thinking that that is what they are getting! In fact Robert Scoble admitted on his own blog that that’s what he thought it was: It wasn’t what I thought it was (I was thinking it’d be an internet version of the Office Suite like PowerPoint, Excel, Word). It’s not. Get that out of your mind. And damn the marketers who are extending the Office brand. [...]
The Web: Free speech — for Chinese admen
CHICAGO, Feb. 15 (UPI) — Commercial speech on the Internet — marketing and advertising — does not seem to be subject to the same strict censorship standards that political speech is in China, and today, most surprisingly for Westerners, exists in a relatively free state of expression, experts tell United Press International’s The Web.
http://www.upi.com/Hi-Tech/view.php?StoryID=20060215-091220-6010r
Concerns were raised in the U.S. Congress Tuesday about censorship fetters being placed by the Chinese Communist government on U.S. Internet service providers like America Online and search-engine providers like Yahoo! and Google. By Gene Koprowski
The Web: Free speech — for Chinese admen
CHICAGO, Feb. 15 (UPI) — Commercial speech on the Internet — marketing and advertising — does not seem to be subject to the same strict censorship standards that political speech is in China, and today, most surprisingly for Westerners, exists in a relatively free state of expression, experts tell United Press International’s The Web.
http://www.upi.com/Hi-Tech/view.php?StoryID=20060215-091220-6010r
Concerns were raised in the U.S. Congress Tuesday about censorship fetters being placed by the Chinese Communist government on U.S. Internet service providers like America Online and search-engine providers like Yahoo! and Google. By Gene Koprowski
Yeah, using Office as a recognizable brand is pretty misleading, but the approach towards small businesses is a good idea. Plus, it will probably be pitched as “an extension of the Office family of products.”
Yeah, using Office as a recognizable brand is pretty misleading, but the approach towards small businesses is a good idea. Plus, it will probably be pitched as “an extension of the Office family of products.”
The only thing that isn’t a part of The Office Family of Products is a nice steak and maybe grits. “New, Microsoft Office Waffle House”
I wouldn’t even blink twice if it happened.
The only thing that isn’t a part of The Office Family of Products is a nice steak and maybe grits. “New, Microsoft Office Waffle House”
I wouldn’t even blink twice if it happened.
So what’s “Officey” about this? No Office in Office Live. Office gonna become like .NET? Slapping Office on everything, even if it makes no branding sense?
People will sign up THINKING it’s HOSTED Office, and Microsoft will jump out the sign-up numbers, saying success, only a few months later finding out most will leave. Bad branding, bad marketing and misleading to boot. Weak weak effort. Go back to the drawing board. All the Ozzie memos, and this is what people get?
In the best Clara Peller impression one can must, “Where’s da Office beef? I don’t think anyone’s back there” And in another 80s commercial jingle, “Move over Office, here comes something much much leaner!”
So what’s “Officey” about this? No Office in Office Live. Office gonna become like .NET? Slapping Office on everything, even if it makes no branding sense?
People will sign up THINKING it’s HOSTED Office, and Microsoft will jump out the sign-up numbers, saying success, only a few months later finding out most will leave. Bad branding, bad marketing and misleading to boot. Weak weak effort. Go back to the drawing board. All the Ozzie memos, and this is what people get?
In the best Clara Peller impression one can must, “Where’s da Office beef? I don’t think anyone’s back there” And in another 80s commercial jingle, “Move over Office, here comes something much much leaner!”
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[...] Peraphs, but I am under the impression that Office Live is being targeted and marketed to the micro-business segment (1-5 employee companies). Robert Scoble has more on that. [...]
[...] Google Pages comes five days after Microsoft’s Office Live, which was recently launched amidst fanfare among the A-list bloggers. That’s fast. [...]
[...] You can start building presentations right away without registering, and although the tools are more basic than Powerpoint, it’s not a bad effort at all. So the real question becomes: does it make sense to have your slideshow on the web? Personally, I don’t think mainstream users are the slightest bit interested in the Web 2.0 office suite just yet. If (and when) Microsoft creates the *real* Office Live (ie. a hosted version of Office), then the masses might take note, but widespread adoption is still a long way off. This entry was posted on Thursday, February 23rd, 2006 at 1:16 pm. Trackback from your own site. [...]
[...] If you thought that this week’s introduction of Office Live marked the rebirth of this concept, you’re not alone. As Microsoft’s Robert Scoble pointed out yesterday, it’s a triumph of bad branding: Office Live isn’t what you think it is. It wasn’t what I thought it was (I was thinking it’d be an internet version of the Office Suite like PowerPoint, Excel, Word). It’s not. Get that out of your mind. And damn the marketers who are extending the Office brand. [...]
If Office Live is really Sharepoint Live, I have a rather, well, radical idea:
Call it what it is: Sharepoint Live.
nahh, that’s CRAZY talk.
If Office Live is really Sharepoint Live, I have a rather, well, radical idea:
Call it what it is: Sharepoint Live.
nahh, that’s CRAZY talk.
Office means just that… an office (online). Why don’t you understand that? Their website never purported to have Word, Excel, or Powerpoint included. Where did you get that idea? This is perfect for a small business… pay extra if you want to support more people. Hey! The Basic one is free… why can’t you all smile? I am very pleased with what they have.
Office means just that… an office (online). Why don’t you understand that? Their website never purported to have Word, Excel, or Powerpoint included. Where did you get that idea? This is perfect for a small business… pay extra if you want to support more people. Hey! The Basic one is free… why can’t you all smile? I am very pleased with what they have.
Me too. I’m so totally happy with Office Live. I think its a brilliant service from MS (And I don’t usually say this for MS).
I’ve got the basic version, and its free domain name and hosting, plus 25 free e-mail addresses. Come on, it’s GREAT!!!
Me too. I’m so totally happy with Office Live. I think its a brilliant service from MS (And I don’t usually say this for MS).
I’ve got the basic version, and its free domain name and hosting, plus 25 free e-mail addresses. Come on, it’s GREAT!!!
I think OL is great for what it is intended to do. I am surprised that there is no ability to add a shopping cart to an Office Live website. Seems like a rather big hole. Would also be great to have an integration point with Office Accounting, to upload product catalog & pricing, and download sales transactions.
Anyone heard of this being on the roadmap?
I think OL is great for what it is intended to do. I am surprised that there is no ability to add a shopping cart to an Office Live website. Seems like a rather big hole. Would also be great to have an integration point with Office Accounting, to upload product catalog & pricing, and download sales transactions.
Anyone heard of this being on the roadmap?