A beta from Microsoft launched earlier this year offers free website hosting and design tools, business-branded e-mail accounts and domain name plus enhanced services that will eventually be subscription based.

Not to be confused with the well-known bundle of office software, Microsoft Office Live is more like a combination domain, hosting, online design software and communications package for small business combining some similar services offered by other providers.

There's still time to get in on the free version of this. I just got an e-mail on it Thursday. But so far, the program is still only available in the U.S., according to the website. Though you can register for a beta in France, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom.

microsoft office Live comes in three flavors:

• Microsoft Office Live Basics-web design software, domain and hosting, 5-email accounts, some features for measuring website traffic and some customer support

• Microsoft Office Collaborative-additional shared sites for internal and external communication with employees, suppliers and vendors, online business applications and enhanced storage space, data protection and customer support

• Microsoft Office Essentials-50 e-mail accounts and other enhanced storage, data transfer, website traffic analysis tools and online business management applications

According to the company website, the "Basics" package will remain free even after the end of the beta period, which would be extremely helpful to low budget business start-ups and competitive with other hosting options.

This is particularly due to the fact that Microsoft is offering a free domain name with free hosting which is somewhat rare with commercial providers, many of which either charge a fee for domain registration or for hosting, or for both.

Site registration does, however, require use of a credit card number even though the service is free (they claim it is to "decrease the likelihood that malicious users will sign up"). And you may need Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher, Microsoft 2000 or later and Windows XP for some of the services.

The $29.95 monthly fee contemplated for the "Collaborative" and "Essentials" packages seems a bit steep considering other online business tools and hosting available, but may be O.K. for established businesses.

It's not clear how usable the application might be for creation of an online store, but I will be e-mailing Microsoft for the answer to this and other questions and will post the response.