Dan Farber has a nice post on an interview with Ray Ozzie regarding Web Office. I find Ozzie’s position clear and grounded as usual and agree (at least to the extent I can think about it now). Dan comments:

Microsoft could miss the window of opportunity, as it did in Web search, and have to play catch up in a category that is a major cash cow for the company.

Not that Dan is pushing this point, but I find it hard to believe. To miss the window means some huge revenue spike must be generated by the marketplace. This has happened exactly once w/ Microsoft so far and it’s not just Internet search so much but the aggregation of many things finally getting far enough. Google shot to the moon, but lots of things on earth had to happen for it to get there.

There is not just a line but a long void between, “Office 2.0 kind of works and will get better each day slowly for individuals and small business” and “Enterprises have lots of other things to worry about then getting problems resolved with web office now”. It’s a long slow change happening, but frankly I don’t see the world moving very fast on solving even the 7 barriers I captured post the Office 2.0 conference. So the effete Office 2.0 and SaaS stuff you are seeing right now is the beginning of maybe something going to the moon, but Microsoft has plenty of time and position to control this one from Houston.