January 19, 2006 Office Live To Feature Web Mail Client By Gregg Keizer Courtesy of Microsoft's Office Live service will likely include a Web-based e-mail client dubbed "Office Live Mail," a Web site run by several Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals said Thursday. one of the major pieces in Microsoft's new strategy to push into the software-as-service market in an effort to derail competitors such as Google, Yahoo, and Salesforce.com, is targeted at small businesses with 10 or fewer employees. When it releases -- details are still sketchy, since it's not yet entered full -- it will offer free domain registration and Web site hosting, free online collaboration tools a la Groove Networks, and free access to multiple mail accounts. According to the Office Live will let users choose between free and paid mail accounts -- the former with 250MB of storage, the latter with 2GB, identical to Hotmail allowances -- allow users to access Outlook via and save e-mail messages to the local machine. "Office Live Mail provides users with the ability to read and receive emails from any internet-connected computer in the world," LiveSide quoted an e-mail reportedly from Microsoft. "Ideal for those on the move, Office Live Mail can be accessed from either a web browser or Outlook 2000/2003." In a separate e-mail that was sent Jan. 6 to the 70,000-plus users who have signed up for the Office Live beta, Microsoft noted that the service will require Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher, Microsoft Office 2000 or newer, and Windows XP or later. Microsoft has not committed to a debut date for the beta, and has only said it would launch the service preview early this year. The e-mailing to beta testers, however, fueled speculation that the service will be unveiled shortly. E-mail This Story Print This Story Get the latest Messaging news, product info, and trends every week.			AXS-One, OnSite E-Discovery Partner To Combine Compliance, Document Retention, E-Discovery And Litigation Support Morgan Stanley Muddles Through An E-Mail Mess Ignoring E-Mail Is A Sure Way To Lose Business Foldera Preps To Launch Web-application Suite Report: Demand Continues To Grow For E-mail Archiving USA.NET Launches Encrypted E-mail Service     Messaging Pipeline's Main RSS Feed     Messaging Pipeline's Blog RSS Feed Editorial and vendor perspectives The Six Flavors Of Windows Vista Microsoft plans to release a full six-pack of Vista versions, one for every taste. Which Vista will be right for you? Hope is Not Enough When It Comes To Compliance Three Ways To Authenticate E-Mail And Stop Spam Wikis In The Workplace Review: Google Desktop 3 Vendors are now talking about how collaboration can be improved by integrating video with messaging applications. They're even talking about adding live TV to mobile phones. How far do you go before it becomes a bandwidth and business productivity drain? Video is a great idea     13% Video is fine but there needs to be size limits     25% It's never used for anything really productive     38% I draw the line at live TV     25% In search of messaging products? Check out our brand new Product Finder for a directory of groupware and collaboration tools, security products, archiving solutions, and more.