Web-based office tool

Salesforce.com next week intends to detail an extension to its Web-based developer platform that it claims will put it on par with traditional offline development tools. At the Dreamforce developer conference in San Francisco next week, company executives will introduce Force.com, the new name for a set of tools and hosted services for building hosted Web applications. It will also introduce an addition to its hosted development platform called Visualforce, a service that allows a developer to create a customized application user interface. Conference attendees will get access to a developer preview of Visualforce. Visualforce complements existing developer-oriented services, including Apex, a language meant to speed up creation of applications that run on its platform. The introduction of the user interface service is significant because it makes Salesforce. ***

Zimbra on Tuesday will release a second beta test of its messaging and calendaring software and introduce a version targeted specifically to businesses. Using an open-source business model and a modern development technique known as Ajax, the start-up is looking to unseat entrenched messaging suppliers IBM and Microsoft. The company, which launched its first beta in August, makes its Web-based messaging product available for free with an open-source license. It intends to make money by charging corporate customers a license fee for a more functional "Network" version and a yearly support fee based on the number of mailboxes used. On Tuesday, the San Mateo, Calif.-based company will make its first Network version available. ***

Microsoft unveiled plans on Tuesday to introduce a Web-based version of its Communicator enterprise messaging software in order to offer customers increased flexibility in accessing the company's collaboration and communications tools. Speaking at the Collaborative Technologies Conference in New York, Anoop Gupta, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Real-Time Collaboration Group, detailed the company's plans to introduce a beta version of the product in mid-July. Dubbed Microsoft Office Communicator Web Access, the software aims to help provide customers with an additional option for accessing the software giant's corporate IM system. The company plans to introduce the latest desktop version of Communicator, labeled Microsoft Office Communicator 2005, sometime before the end of June, and has already begun manufacturing the product. ***

Yahoo is gauging demand for new instant messaging features that would allow people to listen to music while chatting, or manage a single address book from IM. In the past week, Yahoo started issuing surveys to select visitors of its Web network, questioning them on their preferences for potential features on Yahoo Messenger, the company's popular instant chat application. Fresh features could include games, friend icons, avatars or stealth-mode capabilities within Yahoo Messenger, according to a survey reviewed by CNET News.com on Monday. Another enhancement includes letting IM users listen to music from the application and share information about their music tastes. "You can create and listen to your own personalized music channel and your friends can see the artist and the song you are listening to in your online status message," according to the survey, which described features that Yahoo is considering. ***