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We haven’t heard too much about Microsoft’s Office Live collection of online services for small businesses since the open beta started in April, but Elizabeth Montalbano reports at InfoWorld that the product launch and a new service beta are on the way:
Microsoft’s Office Live service is set to go out of beta [in the USA - ed.] Nov. 15, and will eventually offer small businesses a chance to buy ads from rival Google and others, according to a Microsoft executive.
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Microsoft will also introduce a beta of a new service at that time, Office Live adManager, which lets users purchase online advertising for Microsoft’s msn.com and Windows Live Search properties, said Baris Cetinok, director of product management for Office Live. And in the next six months, the company also plans to add the ability to let users purchase ads for search engines from Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, and Local.com, he said.
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Office Live will be available in three versions: Office Live Basics, which is a stripped-down, free version; Office Live Essentials, which costs $19.95 a month and can support up to 10 users; and Office Live Premium, which costs $39.95 a month and can support up to 20 users.
All three versions will include adManager, as well as another new service called Office Live Business Contact Manager, a CRM service, Cetinok said.
Another change to the full version of Office Live will be a simplified Web-site design tool, Cetinok said. The new tool made it easier for users to bring custom HTML to their Web sites, something beta users requested, he said.
Beta versions will also launch in France, Germany, Japan, and the UK on Nov. 15.
Update: Microsoft today had a press release covering this and Mary Jo Foley has a rundown on what changed between announcement and launch: among other things the collaboration offering was dropped.
November 15th, 2006 at 1:25 PM
[...] It’s somewhat anticlimactic since most of the details were released last month, but Microsoft Office Live became generally available in the USA today: Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of Microsoft® Office Live in the United States at http://www.officelive.com after being in beta for nine months, and its free beta availability in Japan, France, the U.K. and Germany on Nov. 21. Customers can sign up for Office Live, a complete, affordable set of Internet-based software and services that help small businesses attract new customers, keep in touch with existing customers, generate repeat business, and easily manage their business while on the go. [...]
February 14th, 2008 at 2:08 PM
[...] Over the weekend Microsoft revamped their Office Live Small Business offering (which is the new name for the original Office Live which has little to do with Microsoft Office). Scott M Fulton III at BetaNews has a nice summary of the changes: [...]
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:31 AM
est il availible en Francais, my English not good
March 2nd, 2008 at 8:37 PM
Duvar – likely better than my French. If you are asking what languages are supported by Office Live, per the announcement in the second comment above, Office Live Small Business is currently available in the following languages and countries/regions: English (U.K., U.S.); French (France); German (Germany); and Japanese (Japan).