Why Office Online is Now Simply Office

Wow, this had a much more passionate response than I was expecting, but I really do appreciate you all sharing your feedback and the enthusiastic interest in this.

Perhaps it would help if I explain a little more. There are two key reasons why we made this change. First, most people refer to Office in terms of the solution rather than the platform they’re using it on, so this change actually reflects how people commonly refer to the Office apps today. And second, this change reinforces the notion that Office is a cloud-connected productivity solution that is accessible from a variety of platforms and endpoints.

Expanding on the first point, when most people use an Office app they usually refer to it by just the name of the app and don’t necessarily specify which platform they are using. Different people might say "I'm reviewing a Word document" or "I’m editing some slides in PowerPoint" and one person means they're doing it on a PC, one person means they're doing it on a Mac, one person is using a phone, and another person is working in a browser. There isn't necessarily a need to differentiate which platform they’re using but if they felt the need to do so, they could easily add that extra bit of specificity. 

To the second point, when people use Office on the web we believe it’s because they want to use Office (and the expectations that go along with that) and have chosen to use it through a browser because of personal preference or situational need. The product is Office and the browser is simply the means they’ve used to access it. Having a unique brand for the web implies that it’s a different product which isn’t really the case. Now we recognize there are some differences in functionality with Office on each platform and that will probably always be the case to some degree. But most of those differences have to do with optimizing the apps for the unique capabilities and predominant use cases of those platforms, and people usually have different expectations of what they want to do with the product based on which platform they’ve elected to use. The other differences that exist do tend to even out over time. But at the end of the day, Office is the product and people can choose to access it whichever way makes the most send for them on the desktop, web, or mobile.

I hope this adds a little more clarity and context for why we made this change. If there’s one thing to take away from the significance of this change, it’s that Office is a solution that spans across platforms and we are committed to making Office the best experience it can be on each of those platforms. Office for the web is not a separate product – it is an integral element of the Office experience. The time has come for us to acknowledge that it doesn’t need to have its own unique brand... it is Office.