Finally, Microsoft throws the gauntlet to Google to launch its own browser-based popular Office applications. Until now Google enjoyed some dominance with its own version of Docs while also rolling out features through its Labs. Now Microsoft played a good catch-up with its own Office Web Apps prior to the launch of Office 2010 next week. Since Zoho isn't very popular yet and the open-source OpenOffice.org might take a while to jump in the cloud-computing wagon, Microsoft's latest roar would be heard loud and wide.
How can you access Office Web Apps?
You'll need an account with Windows Live to access the online suite. (Your Hotmail account works.) Once you are logged in, go to the link "Office" on top. You can use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote almost like the desktop version. You can try other products if you download the trial version.
I tried using all applications on both PC and Mac and tried it on IE, Firefox, Safari and Chrome and didn't really notice any difference. It was a seamless experience, except when I tried to use on IE it wanted me to download Silverlight for better performance. I haven't opened an IE browser for more than a year now!
But I think the biggest bonus of this online experience is the 25GB free online storage space on SkyDrive. You can park your files, share, sync and also download them to a local drive. However, you still need to get online to edit documents. If only this generous space could be used for all-purpose no-size-limit upload/download files, it would be better than Dropbox or ADrive or any other free online cloud drive.
These Office Web Apps are a good start for Web-based computing if you have good connectivity. Perhaps, Microsoft could also add some features of Google Wave, such as simultaneous editing and play back. As of now, I am not complaining.
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