1. Speed – According to Ron Miller of Fierce Content Management, Word Online’s speed leaves a little to be desired. He blames the lagging mostly on Microsoft’s desire to retain the look and feel of the desktop version, including elements such as a the graphic ribbon bar that take some to load on the Web.
2. Integration with the desktop app — Word Online works well with its desktop counterpart, at least compared to Google Docs, says PC World‘s Tony Bradley. Uploading desktop-created Word documents to Google Docs can result in significant formatting errors and other problems.
3. Browser compatibility — Being a Microsoft product, Office Web Apps are designed to work with Microsoft browsers, says Jay Garmon of Notebookreview.com. Testing Word Online with Chrome and Firefox revealed several problems.

Have you tried Office Web Apps yet? What’s your impression? Let us know in the comments section below.

Microsoft will launch Office Web Apps, a collection of free, Web-based versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel, on June 15 (the same day the consumer version of Office 2010 is released), USA Today reports.

The online apps will let users save documents to a Windows Live server and access them from anywhere with an Internet connection using laptops, smartphones and other mobile devices. For businesses, employees will also be able to share and collaborate on documents.

Microsoft said it doesn’t expect the free Web Apps to replace their desktop counterparts — in other words, the online versions will be stripped down compared to the software you have to pay for. But for companies already using Office, the cloud offering could be a good way to help employees collaborate and access their documents on the go.

On Feb. 28, Microsoft announced it’s working on fixing a bug that affects XP users running IE 7 and IE 8.

The error, which was first discovered by iSEC Security Research, can be used to plant malware on a user’s machine.

The attack uses a malicious Web page containing code disguised as a Windows help file. A pop-up window appears asking the user to hit F1, which starts the installation.

Microsoft’s working on a fix, and may include it in its next regular security update on March 7. In the meantime, warn IE users to avoid suspicious sites and never respond to dialogue boxes without knowing what it’s for. A window with a message like “Press F1 to continue” shouldn’t normally appear on a Web site.

Google has announced the end of support for several old Web browsers out there. IE6 is one of them, along with AMozilla’s Firefox 2.0, Apple’s Safari 2.0 and Google’s own Chrome 3.0.

The likely reason: recent hacks that have targeted some of Google’s popular services.

The move by Google comes after other service and site providers have asked users and businesses to get rid of the nearly nine-year-old IE6.

Even Microsoft itself has been urging users to make the switch.

A Microsoft support forum has been hit hard with reports of problems from people trying to upgrade to Windows 7. As one user complained:

“When attempting to upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 the upgrade attempt may fail with the message ‘This version of Windows could not be installed, Your previous version of Windows has been restored, and you can continue to use it.’ However, the next reboot of the machine will launch the upgrade process again only to fail with the same message.”

That problem seems to be hitting users randomly across the board — it’s been reported by people who bought the new OS from Microsoft’s site, as well those who got their copy from a retail store and folks who downloaded the upgrade from Digital River, the Minneapolis-based company that distributes Microsoft’s $29.99 upgrade offer to college students.

A similar problem affected upgrades to Vista Service Pack 1 back in February 2008, and again a few months later with XP Service Pack 3.

The deja vu is bad news for Microsoft, especially after getting some much-needed positive press for Windows 7′s improvements over Vista.

To read more about the problem and possible solutions, check the Microsoft Support forum here.

As a BusinessWeek article puts it: “drivers, the software glue that connects hardware to the operating system, generally cause the most problems after any upgrade.”

The late, unlamented Windows Vista operating system was notorious for driver problems and the difficulty of attaching devices was one of many factors that persuaded many offices to stick with the now-creaky Windows XP.

One big plus in Windows 7 is the availability of an improved Windows Update program, which does a pretty good job of automating the setup of printer drivers, most importantly when you are upgrading from Vista to Windows 7. However, given the proliferation of printers on the market and especially now off the market but in use, it’s inevitable that some drivers won’t be found automatically. That may involve going off to the vendor’s website and finding an updated driver that will work. But sometimes, there’s not one available and you’ve got a problem.

Many printer vendors have pages on their website that deal with Windows 7 driver compatibility — for example HP, Lexmark, and Xerox.

Some others, particularly copier-centric companies, don’t make things so easy, at least not yet. We expect that all of these issues will be solved in the next few months, but make sure that you can run critical machines before switching over.

When Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system (OS X 6.10) debuted a few months ago, there were problems with a variety of printer and scanner drivers, including from Epson and Hewlett-Packard machines. Most of the problems have been fixed or updated, but there are still models that have problems. Apple provides a list of compatible printers here.

Hewlett-Packard also offers a troubleshooting forum online for Snow Leopard converters.

The situation has, according to all reports, gotten much better. But the same advice applies—make sure your critical devices are compatible before making a major upgrade.

Dell, which 30% of buyers ranked as the top green technology supplier in a recent survey by Strategic Oxygen and Cohn and Wolfe. The company was praised for its extensive recycling program.

The survey asked 3,500 IT decision makers (including CEOs, CIOs, IT managers and line of business managers) to rate brands based on environmental friendliness.

Other factors they considered, in addition to recycling programs:

• shipping methods
• products’ energy efficiency
• use of biodegradable and recycled materials, and
• leadership in developing environmentally friendly technologies.

HP came in a close second with 26% of the vote, on the strength of its products’ energy efficiency. Rounding out the top five were IBM (22%), Microsoft and Apple (tied at 21%).

The bottom line: Green credentials are becoming increasingly important to buyers.