No 'Scout' for Office Anytime Soon

In an interview with me, Chris Capossela, who manages the Microsoft Office System products, said that while Scout was a "cool internal project from Microsoft Research to show off some search technology," it was just that: an internal prototype and not a real product.

So, just to be sure, I asked Capossela if this meant that that there were no plans to productize Scout for Office at this time, to which he replied "yes, that is correct."

Capossela implied that there was really no need for Scout as the Office team believes that users can find what they are looking for inside Office 2007 today, without the Scout search technology.

Users have access to the interactive guides, found in Office Online, and which provide short videos to show customers where commands or toolbar buttons found in Office 2003 now live in the new Office 2007 user interface, and how to make the transition from the old to the new, he said.

"The guides are available today, at no cost, and are the number one tool people should use to make the transition from Office 2003 to Office 2007," Capossela told me.

So, do you agree that the search and help features in Office 2007 are good enough, or do you think they could do with a little help from Scout?

The current plan could well be to introduce the Scout search technologies in the next version, known as Office 14.

Capossela tells me that the planning process for Office 14 started about a year ago, and that a team of people have already been working hard on envisioning the next set of scenarios that they want to bring to life.

"We're obviously very early in the thinking of those, but a lot of peole have been living and breathing what's next for us," he said.

What would be on your wish-list for Office 14? .