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Live.com is Microsoft's new service aimed at bringing a number of business services to users over the Internet. Although closely aligned with Microsoft Office products, Live.com brings together various information sources across the Net. Instant messenger and other communications services are also promised.

The new initiative is being promoted

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by Bill Gates as the next big advance in the development of online services. It is also seen by many as a pre-emptive initiative by Microsoft to head off a similar announcement by Google based on the OpenOffice open source productivity suite.

However, the Microsoft programmers have clearly yet to get to grips with Firefox. Microsoft admits there is a bug in search tabs, which 'look strange but are functional' with the promise it will be fixed soon too. Similarly, a search for Excel using Internet Explorer and Firefox will come up with different results.

The promises have not assuaged some of the comments on the Live.com blog with people grumbling that the site should have been standards compliant in the first place and also asking when support for other browsers like Safari and Opera will be provided.