New Zoho Offerings

Here is the announcement about the new Zoho offerings I mentioned this morning.

Microsoft vs. Google?

An interesting article from Mathew Ingram over at Globe and Mail. In the same vein as my earlier post, Microsoft Will Survive.

New Zoho Plugins?

This blog entry is another comment on the Microsoft vs. Office 2.0 tools, specifically Zoho. The reason I refernce it here is because it includes the following statement: “Tomorrow Zoho will release plugins for the major MS Office products, making it easy to save files online directly from within the Office applications. “

I checked the Zoho blog this morning and no mention of it so far but will be interested in finding out what they are.

Zoho Public Sheets, Viral Marketing, Sheet Library

Okay, so I have to admit this didn’t really dawn on me until now but Public Sheets is a powerful concept. I was reading a post on the Zoho blog about this spreadsheet created by a user that is a game called Griddle. I looked at the spreadsheet, I didn’t play the game but I immediately recognized the potential viral effect of this game. And very cleverly the Zoho blog encouraged further exploration, egging on users to create their own games. I can see it now, a whole section of Zoho Sheet Games. Is it only a matter of time before a Zoho Sheet Game gets top spot on Digg? Why not a Zoho Sheet Game contest where people can vote on the best game…

More than that, Public Sheets provide users with the ability to find a spreadsheet that does exactly what they want, or pretty much what and they can tweak, without having to create their own. I’m sure there are web sites that have a library of Excel spreadsheets but until now I never really thought of that. In fact, I’ve never even heard in mentioned by anyone either (which of course seems odd now), all those Excel users creating their own spreadsheets when there are likely hundreds, thousands of templates out there. It’s the intuitive nature of this concept that will help Zoho (and others in the space). The idea that there are public sheets that you can share or copy for your own use is “built in” to an online product. There’s even an RSS feed for new sheets!

At the moment the information supplied about sheets is really insufficient to make Public Sheets really useful. It would also be nice if they supported spreadsheet rating and even perhaps a forum where people could request certain spreadsheets and other members could create them in response. Got a little time on your hands? Subscribe to the feed, review each new public sheet and create your own library site complete with sheet ratings and a request forum.  I’m going to put the idea on CambrianHouse.

SpamTrap

This is an interesting approach. One from Webmail.us called the SpamTrap. You send Webmail an old email address that doesn’t get ANY valid email and they use them to build thier block list for spam. It’s an interesting idea but am curious if it will really work. Undoubtedly people will submit email addresses they no longer use but forgot to change some of their subscriptions for and thus are receiving valid emails but they can’t see the forest for the trees so to speak. Then, of course, those legitimate senders get blocked for all Webmail users. Anyone know of another company that has done this? Did it impact much legitimate mail?

Another Online Docs Comparison

ZDNet UK has posted yet another online documents comparison.  It covers Google Docs & Spreadsheets, ThinkFree and Zoho Writer. What I like about this one is that it has a good comparison chart and touches on a couple key points like Offline support and PDF creation.

 Read the full article >>

Technopreneur Summary of Office 2.0 – Collaboration

This an interesting summary of Office 2.0 – Collaboration. And an interesting little blog overall.

Microsoft Will Survive

Microsoft launches Vista and upgrades to Office soon. I wonder how much the new products will really benefit me. I mean do I really need more new features in Word or Excel? Are the new features for power users or for the masses? Will Vista make my computer run faster because if not I’m not really sure I need a different operating system. Especially when I worry about software I have now that works fine potentially not working when I upgrade and will all my settings remain in tact and will the time I have to spend to upgrade be worth it?

From an Office product standpoint, I think I’m ready to switched web based applications. I don’t need to spend a $100 or more on a new version of Office. I mean I’m pretty much a basic user and at this point the web based applications provide the basic functionality I need. And if they come out with new features I don’t have to care because I don’t have to pay for them.

People keep talking about web based applications as a threat to Microsoft but I just don’t see it. First, You still need an operating system to run your browser even if you are using Zimbra, Zoho, Hyperoffice, BlueTie, etc. Second, Large corporations are going to continue to use Office for several years to come and that’s a lot of revenue. And by the time large corporations are ready to move to web based apps Microsoft will be there too.

I’m not sure the stakes are that high for this coming launch and I wouldn’t say that these new products allow Microsoft to stay ahead of the competition. This product launch will appease current users and keep them pre-occupied long enough for Microsoft to execute a strategy to counter players like Zimbra, Zoho & Google Docs. It will be interesting to see these companies are able to monetize their products and stay in business long term and how many fall by the wayside while Microsoft works it’s strategy in the background.

My comments are related to  an article at the Kansas City Star.

Are the stakes high?

Your Online Office – Review of Internet Productivity Suites

Writer Oliver Rist is sentenced to a week of using only web-based applications for Office productivity. The article includes a review chart of various offerings in the space. You can read his full article at InfoWorld.com.

Michael Lasky has a similar article at PCWorld.com.

Personally, I don’t think Microsoft will be able to keep up with the innovation of the Web Based products. The release of new features is a major undertaking for Microsoft and while it’s probably no small task for any company, these smaller web based companies are going to use that to their advantage. The ones that do so effectively are going to win.

BlueTie Launches TieIn

BlueTie, a provider of business email and calendaring services, has launched TieIn, a Web services platform that gives resellers the ability to manage all of their customers in a single interface and develop new mash-ups.

 Read the full article at Collaboration Loop >>