Microsoft Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie briefs journalists and analysts on the company’s vision for delivering seamless experiences with Internet-based software services. San Francisco, Nov. 1, 2005.

Bill Gates on Tuesday set out what he described as Microsoft's most important new technology vision for five years as he outlined a plan to move more aggressively into developing new internet services, in competition with companies like Google and Yahoo!

The shift would affect all users of software, and will lead to the availability of many more advertising-supported “free” services over the internet for both individuals and businesses, the Microsoft chairman predicted. Microsoft also announced plans for new online services to accompany its core Windows and Office software products in what amounted to one of its most aggressive pushes yet into internet services.

While Microsoft executives have spoken openly for several months about the growing importance of services, Tuesday's announcement marked a watershed moment for the company in its growing battle with Google. Besides stealing a march on Microsoft in the search business, Google has steadily built its internet service into a broader “platform” to deliver more services, some in competition with Microsoft.

Microsoft previewed two new Internet-based software services — Windows Live™ and Microsoft® Office Live — designed to deliver rich and seamless experiences to individuals and small businesses. The new offerings combine the power of software plus services and are compelling enhancements to the Microsoft Windows® and Microsoft Office products. In particular, Windows Live helps bring together all the elements of an individual’s digital world while Office Live helps small companies do business online.

At a briefing for members of the press and analysts, Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and chief software architect, and Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief technical officer, demonstrated these new offerings for the first time, along with Xbox Live® — all of which reflect the company’s ongoing efforts to harness new delivery and business models for software to provide new value to customers and opportunities for developers and partners.

“These new offerings demonstrate how software is evolving through the power of services in ways that enable more dynamic and relevant experiences for people,” Gates said. “Our goal is to make Windows, Office and Xbox® further come alive for our customers at work, home and play.”

“Our dream is to deliver a seamless experience where all the technology in your life and business comes together in a way that ‘just works’ for you,” said Ozzie. “Seamless experiences put people and the things they want to accomplish at the center, with technology easily and transparently connecting them to the people, devices and information that matter most.”

Windows Live

Windows Live™ is a set of personal Internet services and software designed to bring together in one place all of the relationships, information and interests people care about most, with more safety and security features across their PC, devices and the Web. Microsoft demonstrated early versions of several new Windows Live offerings, some of which are accessible at http://ideas.live.com, a new Web site where people can try the latest Windows Live beta services:

Windows Live will be offered alongside MSN.com, a global leader in services with more than 215 million active MSN Hotmail accounts; more than 185 million MSN Messenger contacts worldwide; and over 25 million MSN Spaces created by individuals to share their photos, Web logs (blogs) and interests with friends. MSN.com will continue to deliver rich programmed content and provide access to Windows Live services.

Microsoft Office Live

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates discusses how software is evolving through the power of services. San Francisco, Nov. 1, 2005.

The company today also previewed Office Live, a new set of Internet-based services for growing and managing a business online. Designed to help companies establish an online presence, automate key internal and external business tasks, and collaborate with employees, partners and customers, the initial Office Live offerings are targeted at the approximately 28 million small businesses worldwide that have fewer than 10 employees. These services can be used independently but also integrate with Microsoft Office programs used regularly by more than 400 million people around the world, including Microsoft Outlook®, Microsoft Excel®, Microsoft Office Live Meeting and Microsoft Office Small Business Edition. Over time, the scope of Office Live services will expand.

“A key objective of Office Live is to provide small businesses with the power to easily and inexpensively manage their business in a way that large enterprises already enjoy today,” said Rajesh Jha, general manager of Information Worker Services at Microsoft. “With Office Live services, we make complex technology affordable and easy to use for small businesses, empowering them to reach their business goals.”

There are multiple Office Live offerings. Office Live Basics helps a small business establish an online Internet presence including a domain name, a Web site with 30 MB of storage and five Web e-mail accounts at no charge through an advertising-supported model. Office Live also provides a set of subscription-based services with more than 20 business applications to help automate daily business tasks such as project management, sales and collateral management, customer management, expense reports, time and billing management, and secure internal and external collaboration. Built on Windows SharePoint® Services, these applications can be customized and extended to specific customer needs by an extensive Microsoft partner ecosystem.

Office Live services initially will be released via an invitation-only beta in the U.S. in early 2006. Small-business customers can sign up at http://www.officelive.com.

Developer and Partner Opportunities

Continuing the company’s fundamental commitment to delivering a platform the industry can use to create solutions, Microsoft is making its new live services available to developers to customize, extend and remix. These new services build upon and extend Microsoft’s existing developer platform, tools and ecosystem. Windows Live and Office Live will work with Windows through publicly available application programming interfaces (APIs), available for use by the developer and partner community.

For example, Richard Frost, founder of RE3W World Wide Ltd., an independent software developer specializing in applications related to commercial real estate, demonstrated today at the briefing how its software utilized Windows Live services, specifically Windows Live™ Virtual Earth™, to deliver an enhanced experience to commercial real estate professionals. Through the combination of software and services, the RE3W demonstration highlighted how an individual can search satellite images from Windows Live Local powered by Virtual Earth to identify prospective properties while simultaneously accessing and aggregating information from RE3W’s proprietary data and publicly available ownership records and parcel maps.

With the introduction of these live offerings, Microsoft remains committed to its strategic relationships with telecommunications and hosting service providers to deliver a range of services, including data, video and voice services, to businesses and consumers.

Streamlined Software Delivery

Windows Live and Office Live services will accelerate Microsoft’s delivery of new innovation to customers. Customers will enjoy nearly continuous delivery of new live services and features. In concert with the live services strategy, the Windows development process has been re-engineered to enable more frequent updates across the Windows operating system.

“We are embarking on the richest series of product releases in our company’s 30-year history,” Gates said. “Beyond the opportunities this presents for our customers and partners, these new live offerings represent an incredibly powerful way of enabling customers to more quickly access and benefit from the innovations being developed by our product teams.”

Advertiser Opportunities

The addition of Office Live and Windows Live services enables advertisers to reach an even larger, more engaged audience. Today Ozzie outlined Microsoft’s vision for an advertising network powered by MSN adCenter, where advertisers will have access to tools that provide them with control, insight and intelligence to create more meaningful connections with customers. The advertising network will be open to partners over time so advertisers can connect with a broader audience through traditional media as well as new scenarios such as Internet Protocol television (IPTV) and mobile communications products.