With the announcement from the man’s mouth himself, Bill Gates has launched Microsoft Corporation into the intensive war of online software offerings.

Gates announced the web software offerings of Office Live and Windows Live, the quality and/or need for one’s specific use of a Microsoft product on this front remains to be seen. Both environments appear to be in BETA, but so do many of Microsoft’s offerings just without the initial tag.

Microsoft fights more of an uphill battle in the online application offerings market, as they don’t have quite the corner on it as they do with licensing of their OS. When it comes to web applications, a user is essentially platform independent. Of course, it wouldn’t surprise me if Microsoft starts throwing in IE required features, since they already have a disdain for Firefox.

But, all-in-all, there is some very neat AJAX stuff going on with the websites. And, it will be interesting to watch Microsoft move into a new and competitive field. I wouldn’t look for Microsoft to dominate this market. Those people intelligent enough to realize the value of web applications, should be smart enough to figure out that there are better offerings out there and that one is limited to Microsoft anymore.