Microsoft lands Office.com domain - a home for web apps?

Microsoft has snapped up the Office.com domain.

The address would seem to make for a logical home for the forthcoming web-based version of Office, although Microsoft declined to say how it plans to use the domain.

"At this point, it's too early to share details on our plans around www.office.com," a Microsoft representative said on Thursday. Microsoft launched a technical preview of Office 2010 last month, but the web-based versions are not slated to start public testing until later this year.

Microsoft has said the browser-based Office Web Applications will be a free part of the Windows Live service and will work with Safari and Firefox, in addition to Microsoft's IE.

As for Office.com, the previous occupant of the domain was ContactOffice, which has its own web-based suite of tools. As of Thursday morning, a message on the Office.com site warns users that they are being moved to the ContactOffice.com domain.

"As you know from the recent email we sent you, we will be transitioning the operation of your Virtual Office account to ContactOffice.com during the next 30 days," reads the message on the site. "As part of this transition, on Monday, June 29, 2009, we changed email addresses in the office.com domain to ones in the contactoffice.com domain."

Microsoft declined to offer any details about its acquisition of the Office.com domain. A representative of ContactOffice did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.