Microsoft announced the beta launch of Microsoft Office Live Workspace. This is Microsoft’s answer to Google Docs and will be a “web-based feature of Microsoft Office that enables people to access their documents online anywhere and easily share their work with others.”

Microsoft is currently accepting beta testers over here and will be launching it to the public in about a month or so. The service will be free for up to 1,000 documents. If you have over 1,000 documents there may be a fee, but that fee is not yet disclosed.

I just find it funny that we are now saying Microsoft is challenging Google, when this is really Microsoft’s space.

More details and coverage at Techmeme. Postscript From Danny: Took a quick look, and I’m with Michael Arrington who wrote this isn’t a threat to easy document creation that Google Docs offers. You can upload and share documents, but it seems to only work for those who have Office on their computers.

Related Topics: Google: Docs & Spreadsheets | Microsoft: General

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz