http://workspace.office.live.com/# released in beta to the public in the last days.

After testing it a bit out, it seems already to be a competitor to Google Docs although it is in some aspects completely different.

There is no shared editing of documents as far as I can see, but they released some kind of a client side share your screen tool in which collaboration is possible. It has some pro's and some con's I think.

There is a task list, (Google To Do?) and you can import that in your outlook but it doesn't work for me, think I need sharepoint for that.

There is an item list. (Google Spreadsheet?)

There is a contact list (Google Addressbook -> but that isn't a seperate item in Google Docs)

Notes c.f. Google Docs

An event list (Google Calendar).

You can create workbooks (Google Sites) to collect documents in.

You can share documents as viewers or as editors.

And you can install a connector for MS Office (which I didn't try out).

Best of all, it seems to work in Firefox!

In short, I'll stay using Google dos & Google for applications because it's already more mature, but Office Live Workspace threatens to become a real competitor for this tools. Don't we like this all? Competition will deliver us only the best I think!

After all, it's much easier for Microsoft to integrate online components into Office than for Google to re-create MS Office's features online.

this is a lot like sharepoint /MOSS ..I installed the Olconnector for live add-ons.. one thing I dnt like is that MSFT are locking you into using MSword, Excel and Powerpoint.. I cant get OpenOffice to kick in..