Microsoft's acquisition of PlaceWare Monday bore fruit with the launch of Office Live Meeting, an online conferencing service that pits Microsoft against WebEx Communications, Oracle, IBM and a host of other players.

This first version of Office Live Meeting offers only few enhancements of PlaceWare's service. Also, integration with the new Office 2003 products is minimal. Users can download add-ons for Outlook and MSN Messenger enabling them to start a Web conference from the Microsoft e-mail and instant messaging clients.

An add-on for Windows Messenger, the instant messaging client required for Microsoft's corporate instant messaging product Office Live Communications Server, should be available in the next six months, said Jennifer Callison, director of Live Meeting product management at Microsoft.

Integration with Office is a "very high priority," Callison said. It is high priority because Office is on nearly every business desktop. In addition to Microsoft's marketing dollars, the prime real estate should help the Web conferencing service win customers, she said.

"Our focus is on new customers, this is a new market," Callison said. "The game right now is about awareness and generating trial and growing the market overall."

What is new in the PlaceWare service is a Windows-based client that users can download. The client gives presenters more controls while participants get expanded viewing options and feedback tools such as chat, Callison said. The Windows client comes in addition to a Web-based Java client that PlaceWare will continue to offer for broad reach.

On the back end, PlaceWare, which operates as a wholly-owned Microsoft subsidiary, has increased scalability and reliability in a clustered server environment. Its systems in three data centers, which run on a combination of Windows and Sun's Solaris, can now handle 250,000 concurrent meeting participants for a customer, according to Callison.

Microsoft with PlaceWare offers Web conferencing as a hosted service only, competing with WebEx and other players. Oracle and IBM not only offer Web conferencing as a hosted service, but also sell server software for companies to run their own Web conferences. Microsoft is getting ready to join that game as well, Callison said.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.