Related:

• Office Live Workspace vs Google Docs: Feature-by-Feature Comparison
• Adobe Launches Online Office Suite and New Flash-Enabled Acrobat 9
• 10 Must Have Online Office Apps

While Zoho also has a number of consumer oriented products in its line-up, the company notes that it has lately been focusing mostly on providing features for businesses rather than consumers, which can be seen in the line-up of recent Zoho's products like Projects, CRM, and Invoice. Macros, too, are a feature that is mostly aimed at business users.

Google Docs, Zoho's largest competitor, offers a similar set of features (though no macro recording), but its overall product suite is limited to  documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Also, Adobe just launched its own online office product in June. Chances are that Microsoft is also working on a similar product, though for now, it is following its 'Software+Services' strategy and is using the Internet mostly for storing documents and some limited file viewing capabilites.

Almost There

While the current crop of online office suites can't quite match the feature set of traditional suites like Microsoft Office or OpenOffice yet, the steady addition of features and products is making the online suites a lot more competitive and while they are still somewhat limited when compared to MS Office, they are approaching a point where their feature set can satisfy the majority of customers.

"You know, you look at some traction that some of our competitors have gotten. It’s quite small. It’s quite niche. And I think one of the advantages I think Microsoft brings on the table is how can we scale this kind of capability to millions and millions of people. And Office Live Workspace is really the first service that’s in this area. And you’re going to see us, which we’ve already showed, is we’re going to rapidly improve it."

Eric Gilmore also clarified the confusion around the Microsoft Live brand:

"When we think of Live, it’s all user managed. So the content is all about me. All the services is, kind of, I control -- my company or my organization I work for really don’t control live services. That’s kind of the piece that’s important. And typically, live services today are free, so they’re free online so they can take advantage of that."
emphasis ours

This is an interesting point, becase traditionally Microsoft Office has been a system controlled by the IT department and CIOs. With Office Live Workspace, contends Gilmore, much of the control goes back to the user. So the question becomes: how are CIOs and the IT department dealing with that? I thought Gilmore's response to this was especially revealing about Microsoft's Office Live strategy:

"Well, I talk a lot to CIOs and other businesspeople and enterprises.

And I think they’re really grappling with trendy term of consumerization of IT. They’re seeing this kind of wave of really innovative Web 2.0 application sinking into the enterprise. And quite frankly, they’re struggling with how to deal with them. Do they embrace them? Do they shut them down? And I think there are significant challenges they have to deal with: Security, privacy, manageability, a lot of the core things that IT professionals care about.

When we look at the problem they have to deal with, a lot of times, we get the question, "Do you guys support Workspace being in the enterprise?" And I absolutely respond, "We love it. We hope people use it." If it goes in the enterprise, it’s a great thing because typically it’s solving frustration or pain for those employees. And today, a CIO and IT pro have to deal with consumer email being the biggest leak in information outside the firewall.

And we look at Workspace as providing a great collab experience, whether it’s ad hoc collaboration or not, if you don’t have something like SharePoint where there is a lot of that security and privacy manageability aspects to the infrastructure. So we think it’s a bridging aspect. It’s better than email. We think it’s a great ad hoc collaboration. It’s free."
emphasis ours

Eric concludes that longer term, Microsoft sees Office Live Workspace as "a way to bridge the gap between the Live ID world and the Active Directory world."

Conclusion

Perhaps what it comes down to, when comparing Microsoft Office Live Workspace with Google Docs, is this: Microsoft sees its product as a 'lite' version of SharePoint; whereas Google, despite its past protestations that it aims to complement Microsoft Office and not replace it, is very much about routing around the need for big bulky desktop apps like MS Office and SharePoint.

The word "bridging" or "bridge" was used a few times in the podcast, which to me indicates that Office Live Workspace is just as much about enticing customers to 'upgrade' to the desktop experience (MS Office, SharePoint) than it is about bringing the Web to MS Office users. This is an entirely valid strategy, but it still means that Microsoft's entire office strategy depends on desktop software.

That leaves the door ajar for the likes of Google and Zoho to take market share from MS Office, over time, by providing a completely 'web native' approach.

Check out the full podcast with Eric Gilmore of Microsoft on ReadWriteTalk.

Before we review the features in detail, let's look at an overview of what Office Live Workspace offers.

After signing up for Office Live and signing into the service (and no, you don't have to have an MSN email address to do so), you are presented with the "Documents" area where you can upload and view files and share them with others.

However, the defining feature is of this service are the "workspaces." The "My Workspaces" section is to the left of the main window. You can create a new workspace by clicking on the plus button next to "New Workspace."

You can start with a blank workspace or choose one of the workspace templates provided. These templates include things like "Class Workspace," "Event Workspace," "Household Workspace," "Job Search Workspace," and more. Loading one of these templates populates the Workspace with some sample documents. For example, the "Job Search Workspace" comes pre-loaded with documents like a resume, a cover letter, an interview schedule, interview preparation notes, etc.

Files can't be edited from within workspace, but clicking on "edit" will open them up in Microsoft Office (of course). Individual documents or entire workspaces can be shared with others. Using the provided Office plug-in allows for one-click access from the desktop software to the workspace.

The workspace doesn't offer offline collaboration - instead documents are "checked out" and "checked in," but the service does integrate with SharedView for real-time screen sharing.

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Both Google Docs and Office Live Workspace are free services, but each has its own unique set of features.

Storage Space

Microsoft Office Live Workspace is limited to 500 MB of space, which equates to about 1000 Microsoft Office documents.

I found it hard to pin down Google Docs storage space. Going into the basic information section of docs.google.com, I found two sentences stating: "Each user has a combined limit of 5000 documents and presentations and 5000 images," and "Each user has a limit of 1000 spreadsheets." However, an actual quota in MB was not specified.

File Types

Google Docs is limited to the types of files their service allows you to edit online: HTML, .txt, .doc .rtf, .odt, .xls, .csv, .ods, .tsv, .tsb, .ppt, and .pps.

Office Live Workspace allows you to upload all kinds of files, not only Office document file types. So, in addition, you can upload .PDFs, pictures, or seemingly any kind of file except those on the blocked list, which are blocked to protect users as they are file types Windows sees as executable files.

File Sizes

Google Docs allows for documents of 500 K each, plus up to 2 MB per embedded image. Presentations can be 10 MB in size. Spreadsheets can be 10,000 rows, or up to 256 columns, or up to 100,000 cells, or up to 40 sheets - whichever limit is reached first. Each spreadsheet can have up to 20,000 cells with formulas.

Regardless of the file type, Office Live Workspace allows for individual files as large as 25 MB.

Sharing

Google Docs allows for sharing of a file or files by checking the checkbox next to them and clicking "share" from the menu. Those you are sharing with can be invited as "Collaborators" or "Viewers." You can add a short note along with the invitation. Documents and presentations can be shared with 200 combined viewers, but spreadsheets have no limit.

Similarly, Office Live Workspace allows you to share documents or workspaces with others and mark them as "editors" or "viewers". You can add a note along with the message. You can also check a box to allow "everyone to view this without signing in," and/or a box to "send me a copy of the sharing invitation." Below, a read-only preview of the file is displayed. Files or workspaces can be shared with up to 100 people.

Both offer address book integration for finding recipients' email addresses.

Collaboration

In Google Docs, collaborators have the ability to work on files together, in-real time. Ten people may edit and/or view a document or presentation at any given time. Fifty people can edit a spreadsheet at the same time.

Although Office Live Workspace allows for collaboration, it's not real-time, online collaboration. Instead, if one user is editing a file, another will be informed the file is "checked out." When they finish editing and save their changes the document is checked back in for other users to access.

Versioning

Both Google Docs and Office Live Workspace keep track of older versions of a file. You can use the web interface of either to roll back to a previous copy.

Batch Uploads

Google Docs allows you to browse for a file on your computer and upload it to the service, one-by-one. Documents and presentations can be emailed in, but not spreadsheets. In January, Google released a Document List Uploader tool that provides drag-and-drop uploads to the service. Third party tools like DocSyncer can automatically upload your documents from your PC to Google Docs.

Office Live Workspace also allows for Batch Upload, but if you're not using IE, you won't see the option. IE users can click on "Add Document" and they will be presented with the option to upload a single document or multiple documents.

Integration

Google Docs is the whole offering - there is no offline software to use, but if you needed to edit files with offline software, like Microsoft Office or Open Office, because you hit a wall with Google Docs' current abilities, you could do so by downloading the file to your PC.

However, since Office Live Workspace is the web-enabled aspect of Microsoft Office software, integration is key. From within the workspace, you can click "edit" to open the file with the Microsoft Office program. The service also offers an add-in that works with Office XP, 2003, or 2007. The add-in allows you to open and save documents to and from the workspace via the software's File Menu (XP, 2003) or Office menu (2007).

Direct URLs

Both Google Docs and Office Live Workspace offer direct links to allow you to bookmark your workspace or a workspace item (Microsoft) or a file (Google Docs) via a unique URL you can save or share with others.

Folders

Google Docs allows for folders and sub-folders to store your files.

Essentially, Office Live Workspace offers folders, too, if you consider that each "workspace" is basically a folder containing files you want to group together. You can name these anything you want, but sub-folders within them are not supported.

Saving/Exporting

Google Docs allows you to save files to your computer by saving them into (depending on their original format) a Microsoft Office, Open Office, HTML, txt, or even PDF format. You choose the format you want from the menu.

Office Live Workspace of course assumes you want to save the file in Microsoft Office format or whatever other format the file is already in (ex. PDF).

Mobile Access

Google Docs are available from any mobile device, but editing is not available.

Office Live Workspace doesn't provide mobile access, unless you're a member of the Live@edu program. The Live@edu program offers students and alumni 5 GB email inboxes, 5 GB of password-protected online storage space, shared calendars, blogging tools, and access to these services on a mobile phone, all at no cost to the schools or students.

Other Features

Google Docs

• You can create a form in a Google Docs spreadsheet and send it out to anyone with an email address. They can respond directly from the email message or from an automatically generated web page and their responses are automatically added to your spreadsheet.

Office Live Workspace

• Office Live Workspace offers some nice features, such as the ability to comment on files stored on the service.
• Also, an "Activities" feature keeps track of workplace activities with the new activity panel and can send you notifications when changes are made in the workspace.
• Integration with SharedView beta allows Office Live Workspace users to share screens with each other in real-time.

Conclusion

Although it's very close when it comes to basic features of the two services, each stands out in its own way. Google Docs, although limited in its capabilities, offers real-time collaboration. Office Live Workspace, on the other hand, may not have the collaboration features of Google Docs, but the workspaces feature is unique. Plus, you have the capabilities of full-featured Office software available (assuming you own it)!

So, what do you think? Is Office Live Workspace a Google Docs killer? Or just a worthy competitor? Or is Google Docs the big winner?