In a competition against Google over running Cal State Long Beach’s new e-mail service, Microsoft tried to persuade students Thursday with smart phone synchronization, online document editing and instant messaging features.
“We’re starting to see a real drive toward students expected to see the use of [social networking] technologies,” said Jonny Chambers, Microsoft senior solutions specialist of Live@Edu. “We’re starting to see students, as well, starting to pick the technology that’s offered in schools … and with these technologies, students will be able to collaborate with each other, collaborate with faculty and staff, and even collaborate with people doing research projects who are in different universities around the world.”
Live Media, formerly known as the MSN University program, is a set of hosted services offered for free worldwide by Microsoft. It includes an e-mail client, as well as the ability to customize features and view the site without advertisements, unlike the hosted version of the service.
E-mail accounts will come with 10 gigabytes of storage with an up-time of 99.9 percent, according to Chambers. Users will have the option of instant messaging straight from the online client and will also be able to use POP and IMAP clients, such as Outlook and Thunderbird.
Checking and replying to e-mails can be done within one account because students will be able to forward messages from other e-mail accounts into Microsoft’s client, which can be arranged into separate folders. Creating categories is also an option for organizing e-mails.
Chambers added that users with smart phones, such as the iPhone, can sync their account and get mobile notifications. They can also sync calendars, contacts and tasks.
The calendar also allows users to set up appointments to share with other users, which can be done both publicly and privately. Appointment requests can be sent out to others, who will have the option to accept. The calendar will reflect who has agreed to attend. Users can also create and join groups.
Aside from e-mail, Microsoft has a separate product available for users called Skydrive, which is currently available to Hotmail users. The commercial version is ad-free and allows users to store files without reformatting them. The service includes 25 gigabytes of storage.
Microsoft files saved on Skydrive will also be accessible for online editing. For example, Excel, Word and PowerPoint documents can be edited directly from the Web site.
Electric engineering graduate student Rajesh Yerrapothu attended both the Microsoft and Google presentations and favored Microsoft’s.
“It looked really interesting,” he said.
Also in attendance was Associated Student Inc. President Chris Chavez, who favored Microsoft as well.
“Microsoft is sticking to sheer functionality, while Google is sticking to social networking,” Chavez said. “Google has the brand name, but I think Microsoft showed a solid performance as well.”