Two major announcements from Microsoft: the release of Office Live, a web-based business solutions tool (NOT a web-based version of MS Office); and the announcement of ContentAds, Microsoft's forthcoming contextual ad network.

Essentially, it looks as though Microsoft is trying to apply the same strategy it used to own the PC market to own the business solutions market. Here's how it works:

1. Own the platform upon which all activity will be done. For PCs, the platform is the operating system; that's what all other applications rest on, and what allows everything to work.
2. Build your own services on top of this (i.e. MS Word), and allow others to build applications on top of your operating system as well.

In the case of Office Live, it looks as though Microsoft wants to own the platform that businesses can run their operations on top of. Presumably this will include basic business functions like CRM tools and accounting tools.

Of course, almost every business also needs to advertise, and hence the introduction of ContentAds. By going for the platform upon which businesses are built, Microsoft may be able to find the backdoor into the contextual ad market and take it from Google.

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