Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. today announced a joint development project that leverages Amazon Web Services (http://www.amazon.com/webservices/) and the Extensible Markup Language (XML) capabilities of Microsoft® Office System programs to provide users with access to Amazon.com products and data while working in Microsoft productivity applications. The solution, called Amazon.com Research Services for Microsoft Office System, will be available for download in the Office Marketplace (http://www.office.microsoft.com/marketplace/) at no additional charge later this fall.

By integrating Amazon Web Services, Amazon.com Research Services for Microsoft Office System will provide Microsoft Office System users with convenient and seamless access to Amazon.com from within Microsoft productivity applications via the Research Task Pane. Users will be able to access Amazon.com information and make purchases without launching a browser or leaving their document, e-mail message or presentation. For example, a customer reading a bibliography in a Word document could easily click on a book title and purchase it from within the Research Task Pane without having to leave the Word document. Alternatively, a user will be able to add a footnote, bibliography entry and even cover art for books without needing to manually enter the information into a document.