Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Microsoft Office Live offers free website, but does not support Firefox?

The software giant is now offering small businesses a hosted website solution. Office Live is in Beta testing offering:

      • Free domain name and Web hosting
      • Easy-to-use Web site design tools
      • 500 MB of Web site storage space
      • 25 company-branded e-mail accounts
      • Web site reports
      • Search advertising tool with $50 credit*   

So intrigued by this offer I clicked on the "Get it for free button" only to be given this error message:

Office Live - No Firefox

It seems that Office Live does not consider Firefox a browser, makes me wonder if the website will work with browsers other than Internet Explorer.

Despite my disappointment, I opened up Internet Explorer and tried to signup, however this time I found that a credit card is required field.

Why would you need a credit card for a free service?

Microsoft states:

Even though Microsoft Office Live Basics is a free service and Microsoft Office Live Collaboration is free during the beta period, we still require a credit card in order to validate that every customer is a legitimate entity

So how long will the beta last? How long before Microsoft charges my card $1000/month. I will never know, the disclaimer and non-support for firefox turned me off instantly.

Good try Microsoft, better luck next time.

No comments: