Microsoft Albany Releasing - An Office Live Workspaces Product

Microsoft confirmed they have started testing for a brand new product code-named "Albany" but would not offer any further details on the product, which may or may not be its ad-funded version of Works. In fact, Microsoft mentioned last year that it plans to test an ad-funded version of Works, following several years of exploring the idea. However, it is unclear whether Albany is in fact that product. The software maker already has its Office Live Workspaces product which lets people store and share office documents online, to competing with Google Docs, but unlike Google Docs and Spreadsheets, does not allow documents to be edited online.

ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley posted a report earlier Friday saying that Albany is a consumer product in the Office family. She didn't get anything concrete out of Redmond either, but has some informed speculation of what it might be.

Is it a new start of competition between Microsoft and Google, ps: where's Yahoo!? In my opinion, the best solution for Microsoft is ingerating with Yahoo! then face the Google Giant, Bill Gates should concentrate on web-based products instead of some web 2.0 gurus.