Web-Based Apps vs. Microsoft

There was a very good article summarizing the Web-Based Apps vs. Microsoft discussion by Cynthia Harvey over at Datamation entitled: Free Web-Based Office Productivity Apps. The sub heads within the article pretty much sum up the discussion to date:

Let’s Share

Wherever You Go, There It Is

Whose Server Do You Trust?

Free!

Show Me The Features

Just A Bit Quirky

Will The Empire Strike Back?

Again, a very good summary. I think it will be great to do a summary of progress in each of these areas say in 6 months and then again in a year to see what changes have occured and progress made.

Slowing Down for the Holiday

Well we’ve reached the bottom of the PR trough with the holiday coming next week. The blogs are slowing down, the only press releases that come out will be the ones they don’t want you to read. Alternatively, who will want to make the first splash of the new year? Who will have the first press release of the year? Zimbra, Zoho, Foldera? I’ll provide what link bait I can for whomever’s first. Just don’t tell Google, otherwise I might have to add a ‘NoFollow’ tag….

 Here are a few other things I’d like to see in 07:

A comprehensive chart of who offers what in terms of applications for business; email, ’word’ documents, spreadsheets, powerpoint, project planning, etc. Any volunteers? You should be able to get a lot of links for something thorough. 

Will storage size stop being used as a product differentiator in 2007? Can someone please do a survey for us and let us know if customers really see this as a key factor?

How many new products will Zoho launch in 07? Raju or Arvind, is there a Zoho Mail coming?

Do those ratios in Nichebot really work? (Keyword campaign in progress.)

Foldera Launch….. Still skeptical Oliver & Dave…. you can send my beta login to catchyaintit [at] yahoo.com  

Who will have a mash up for Goowy first?

Which conference, related to our topics here, is THE one to go to for 2007?

Will the expanded features of products like Zimbra, HyperOffice and others begin to make a serious dent into the Hosted Exchange market? 

What do you think will be interesting with everyone in 2007, basecamp, bluetie, everyone.net, foldera, fusemail, hyperoffice, intermedia.net, load.com, mailsnare, mailstreet, MI8, myoffice.net, norada, runbox, scalix, sherweb, simplicato, solodox, swishmail, thinkfree, usa.net, webmail.us, zimbra, zoho…

What else needs to be covered?

Our visitor stats are growing pretty strong so please help tell your story, provide some thought leadership and expand the dialogue to keep people coming back. We can all benefit from more content, more links and more exposure.

Are the old portal pages on the way out?

Do you think that the offerings from NetVibes, PageFlakes and Goowy will replace what is now the ‘traditional’ portal page like you My Yahoo! page or your Google personalized page? And which one is your favorite? Personally I like the ability to place elements wherever I want on the page as with Goowy.  I’m dissapointed though that of the three, none of the RSS feed widgets allow a bookmarking or starring like the Google reader. What about Yahoo! Widgets? Are they doomed because they are tied to the desktop where as these others are not? And all of our players, BlueTie, Zimbra, Hyperoffice, Zoho, Everyone.Net, everyone should have a widget for all of these, your task list, incoming email, etc.

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?

Sherweb raises Hosted Exchange mailbox size

Well it’s supposed to be news that Sherweb raised their Exchange mailbox size to 1.25 GB. As noted earlier in the week, BlueTie, while not Exchange but an Exchange alternative offers 5 GB for free and 10GB for almost half the price of Sherwebs 1.25 GB. Are companies keeping mailbox sizes low in order to make it a selling point? I mean all the features are the same, they need something to claim differentiation on right? This is why competitors like BlueTie, Zimbra, Hyperoffice and others have an advantage, they’ll be adding new features and functions at a far greater pace than Exchange. You’ll get, in fact with some you can already get,  more features for less money than Hosted Exchange.

Five Reasons to Use a Paper To Do List

I remember reading somewhere that when doing deeply contemplative work you should use pen and paper. I know that when I need to think something through I often print out information and them move away from the computer and get out a pad and pencil.

Incidentally, this is the first time I’ve seen Web Worker Daily. I like the concept and audience target but I’m surprised at the limited tool coverage. I see Gmail, Basecamp and Scrybe (which is not widely available), I think much value could be added by expanding the tool coverage to some mature email and calendaring tools like BlueTie, Zimbra and Hyperoffice, etc.

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