Stories about: ThinkFree

Web-based office suites are coming into their own at last. For quite a while, Web-based suites -- which offered word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and other tools associated with desktop office suites -- were extolled not because they did these things well, but because they could do them at all. But the three major competitors, Google Docs, ThinkFree, and Zoho, have all made major improvements in recent months. They're becoming both broader, with more applications, and deeper, with more features and functionality in existing apps.

There are many popular, low-cost ways to toss text onto the Web, from blogs and Google Docs to social networking sites. Likewise, you can find a lot of sites where you can post photos and videos. But until recently, less attention has been paid to online databases -- and that's a pity, because lots of people besides database geeks would benefit from a bit more structure to their data.

Worried by the small but growing number of small businesses and consumers switching from Microsoft Office to cheaper or free online alternatives such as Google Apps, Microsoft plans to arm a key cohort of its formidable legion of partners to help fight the threat to Office 2.0.

Free. It's the magic word for an ever-expanding wealth of downloadable software and online services. Free doesn't necessarily mean good, however, and hunting for freebies can mean sifting through a lot of junk.

To try to spur interest in its upcoming Office Live Workspace service, Microsoft plans to announce this week that it is running a sweepstakes in the US with a US$100,000 grand prize for US beta testers of the Web-based document storage and collaboration offering.

One of the potentially hottest items in the software aisle of US electronics retailers this Christmas season is, if you ask Santa's load-bearing reindeer, just an empty box.

Google's Google Docs software has cemented its position as the leading suite of online office applications, based on unique-visitors statistics released Thursday by a Web-audience research firm showing Google holding a commanding lead over start-up rivals as well as Microsoft.

A little over a year ago, social networking site Facebook opened its doors to nonstudents, and since that time, businesspeople and the computer-savvy have flocked to it. A big reason for the site's allure is not just the number of people who use it, but also the thousands of applications on the site -- mini applets that use the power of social networking for everything imaginable.

Nearly a year ago, Microsoft released Office 2007 to corporate users and so began the slow and methodical evaluation of the software (unless, of course, you were an early adopter).

Startup HiveLive Monday emerged from stealth mode and unveiled its new social networking service designed to connect people and information around what the company calls Hives.

Microsoft is taking direct aim at enterprises with its new Online family of applications, opposing conventional wisdom that smaller companies and consumers are the main targets for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technologies.