MSFT: Next Step, Web 2.0

Microsoft has grand plans for a new “web platform” strategy. Cnet has the coverage. From it:

The software company plans to open access to its MSN and other public Web sites to let developers assemble new applications that build on those sites–a technique used successfully at Google and at other Web companies to promote their properties.

Microsoft will detail its “Web platform” strategy at its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles next week, company executives told CNET News.com. It intends to publish the application programming interfaces, or APIs, to some of its public Web sites, including MSN Search, and deliver better tools to write those applications.

More on this as I get smart(er) on it….the key of course, is how they plan to integrate Windows and Office…their main revenue lines….there is some detail on that in the Cnet piece…read to the second page…

On one hand, Microsoft is appealing to the trend of making Web applications that run entirely in the browser across all operating systems. But at the same time, it continues to espouse so-called thick clients, or what Microsoft calls “smart clients,” where the application front end fully exploits the features of Windows and Office on a PC. In its own Dynamics-branded business applications, announced Wednesday, integration with Office is a top priority, for instance