Microsoft Office Live Workspace & Live Search

Parroting the Competition

by Rupert Sharp
of http://www.oyster-web.co.uk

Last updated: 9 Oct 2007

Microsoft seems to have followed Google's lead with their own system for storing documents and spreadsheets online; Microsoft Office Live Workspace. This new add-on to Microsoft Office will allow users to share their documents live from anywhere in the world. The documents that Microsoft allows are Word, Excel and PowerPoint and once uploaded other users may view and comment on them. As with Hotmail, Microsoft have allowed a nice portion of memory to store your docs (240MBs) which is plenty for 'ye average user'. The timing for this new production is quite appropriate considering other companies have been bringing out new services and software recently; for example Google Docs has the ability to show presentations over the net and also allow collaborative editing and discussion, but Microsoft have not focused so much on that area. I expect Microsoft is seriously preparing to get its rear in gear to fight back against its competitors which seem to have been taking an ambitious attack on the market, such as in particular, er.. Google.

In an attempt to win back some of their vanishing search market share (now down to about 5% for MSN and Live Search combined) Microsoft also recently finalised their updated Live Search, which admittedly is a damn sight better than the original algorithm which was pants to be honest. Reportedly the Index has been increased considerably but it still remains inconsistent; for some searches it pulls back a lot more than other engines but for others it barely brings back half. It also has an Ask.com-type question asking algorithm that brings back some quite useful definitions and answers, but still doesn't compare to Ask. The search is a definite improvement but nothing to write home about, definitely not enough for you to switch from your regular engine. To quote Monty Python's dead parrot sketch, Live Search - “Beautiful plumage but it’s pining for the fjords”.