"Microsoft is holding a briefing in San Francisco Tuesday, at which Mr Gates and Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Ray Ozzie will discuss the company's response to the trend [towards software hosted on the net]. Though officials wouldn't comment in advance of the event, people familiar with the company's plans are expecting the men to disclose new plans for combining programs such as Windows and Office with additional features and services that can be accessed over the Internet or corporate networks," reports The Wall Street Journal (paid sub required).
"The success of the strategy will largely hinge on Mr Ozzie, a PC software-industry pioneer who joined the company six months ago when Microsoft bought his software company, Groove Networks Inc. In comments last week at an Internet-industry conference, Mr Ozzie argued that software-based services are fundamentally changing the way people use technology and the Internet. As an example, he pointed to the way Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes software and online store have worked to ensure the success of its iPod portable music player."
Comment: Microsoft was the first company to use Ajax (back in a previous century) to create Outlook Web Access, and created a hosted version of Office in response to the short-lived hype for the ASP (application service provider) approach. Microsoft is also developing the previously-mentioned Atlas, which is "the codename for a set of technologies to add Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML) support to ASP.NET."
I also wonder if they will mention Kahuna. This is the new Ajaxed version of the currently horrible Hotmail service, which is under development. It's unknown, of course, but only insofar as almost nothing interesting in Microsoft is now unknown: the Kahuna team is blogging.
