The future of web-based services is still up in the air, but Microsoft has decided to take a route different than the majority of its competitors.  While companies like Google and Yahoo! continue to build web-only applications and services, Microsoft has, instead, decided that online services are best suited as supplementary to traditional, installable software.

The approach should come as no surprise.  The majority of Microsoft's entire business is built around it's dominance of the operating system and office productivity markets.  The company hopes to leverage that dominance to drive its online services outfit which, according to CNN Money, has been losing money so far.

But as CNN puts it, Microsoft is "ready to battle" Google's domination of web services.

The fight will be a tough one for the software giant.  Google and Yahoo! have already built successful, profitable companies around their web technologies.  Microsoft, a relative newcomer to the market, has seen little success in unsettling the reining kings of online service.

Enter Windows Live.

Windows Live, which is an umbrella term for over 20 different online services, is beginning to go public piece by piece.  Live Search has replaced MSN as Microsoft's premiere search offering.  Coupled with its new adCenter, Microsoft hopes to get a cut of the multimillion dollar search advertising market.  Office Live is another product that the company hopes will help solidify its Office suite of PC applications.  The online service, similar to Google Docs & Spreadsheets, integrates seamlessly with the PC suite and lets users share, transfer, and edit documents regardless of location.

Only time will tell if Microsoft's push will pay off.  They have a massive undertaking ahead of them.  But if Microsoft has proven anything, it's that coming late to a party doesn't mean you can't dance.