Today, Microsoft is making a so-called Tech Preview version of its long-awaited Office Web Applications (OWA) services available for limited testing. As of this writing, I haven't had a lot of hands-on time with OWA, but because of the tremendous excitement over this product, I want to provide a quick heads-up about what's going on here, and when you can expect to try it yourself.

As you may recall, OWA consists of four web-based versions of classic Microsoft Office applications. These include Word Web App, Excel Web App, PowerPoint Web App, and OneNote Web App. Microsoft is positioning the OWAs as "online extensions" of the traditional Office suite applications, and not as full-fledged replacements for them. They allow you to view, create, and edit standard Office documents using a familiar Office 2010-inspired, ribbon-based user interface. And while they obviously don't include the full range of Office functionality, it's a pretty impressive achievement.