Microsoft adds new features to Office Live Small Business

Microsoft has started what is expected to be a four- to six-week rollout of new features and functionality for its Office Live Small Business service.

Office Live Small Business (formerly known as "Office Live" before last year's rebranding) is a set of Web service add-ons designed primarily to complement Microsoft Office. The service is currently available in three flavors: Basics (free), Essentials ($19.95 per month) and Premium ($39.95 per month).

Microsoft is adding more customization, management, adManager integration and increased e-mail storage limits to the various small-business service SKUs. As Microsoft rolls out the new capabilities, there could be downtime, officials warned in a posting to the the Office Live Small Business blog:

"While we implement these changes there will be brief periods when service is unavailable. During these periods of service interruption, Web site traffic data will not be collected and will not be reflected in Reports. Rest assured that we are working hard to minimize the impact to our customers, but we want you to be prepared."

In July 2007, Microsoft quietly repositioned its existing set of Office Live services as “Office Live Small Business.” Microsoft officials have said the company has plans to go both up and down market with Office Live by rolling out more enterprise-focused Office service add-ons, as well as new Office Live "personal" services aimed more directly at individual consumers.

So far, Microsoft has made no official announcements on either end of that spectrum. The company did add a new Office Live Service, Office Live Workspace, to its stable in late 2007. The Workspace service, designed to add a cloud-storage/sharing capability to office suites (first and foremost, Microsoft Office) is currently in the private beta testing phase.

(Thanks to LiveSide.Net for spotting the Office Live Small Business blog update.)