If a tree falls in the forest….

I think we’ve had some interesting posts in the last couple weeks and our visits remain consistent but everyone’s been very quiet on the comments. It’s Q1 and everyone’s probably very busy. Here’s a quick list of the most interesting in case you haven’t had time to read through. Click through to a couple and let us know what you think.

 Why ‘Free-mail’ has a bad reputation

“…And finally, here’s the one I don’t understand: 

“But the real sticking point may be whether you want to trust your most important messages to any free service at all.”

I don’t know what this means. Why wouldn’t I want to trust my messages to a free service? What is the opposite of a ‘free service’ and why should I ‘trust’ them?”

Online Office Suite Review and Comparison

“…For those of you who are watching the online office suite marketplace, it also notes that Google and ThinkFree may be in negotiations. Do you think it will happen?”

Microsoft and Online Office Update

“…It’s a nice SWOT analysis of Microsoft’s strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It ends with a list of options for Microsoft which I’ve placed into this handy Zoho poll. What do you think?”

Monetizing Web 2.0 - Solved

“…The model that BlueTie is building is beyond ‘Free-mium’, it’s the monetization model of the future. How long before Goolge replaces those ads in Gmail with integrated services like this?”

Online Office Suite Review and Comparison

Computerworld has a recent review of online office suites, Ajax13, Google, Thinkfree and Zoho. It’s a good article. If your considering using an online office suite for your business it’s worth a read.

For those of you who are watching the online office suite marketplace, it also notes that Google and ThinkFree may be in negotiations. Do you think it will happen?

Open-Source vs. SAAS

An interesting post by Mark Suster at Koral doing a little bit of a compare/contrast of Open-Source vs. SAAS. I found it interesting since some companies are SAAS (BlueTie, Zoho) and others are Open-Source (Zimbra, Scalix). 

I wonder if it doesn’t come down to the level of technical sophistication that will make one or the other more attactive to an enterprise. For example, would a small business owner of say an office of 5 to 10 people ever think about getting something they have to install or configure on a server like Zimbra for example? Surely they would go with something more ‘turn-key’ like BlueTie for email and calendar and ThinkFree or Zoho for documents.

So maybe it comes down to enterprise size, open-source for larger enterprises that have their own IT staff and SAAS for smaller enterprises or those larger enterprises that are trying to save IT staff costs.

It would be good to include a classificiation of target company size in that product chart I mentioned before.

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.

WorldTechLogic ThinkFree Review

There is a new review of ThinkFree over at WorldTechLogic. I’ve been seeing more and more news about ThinkFree lately. It’s often associated with how much ThinkFree mimics MS Office. This is an important point because Office will continue to be the bar by which online office suites are measured. It’s fine to add other tools and features but if you don’t do the basics (the basics being what I’m used to seeing with MS Office today) then the other features you have won’t matter. 

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.

Thinkfree To Offer Offline

I’m supposed to be on vacation today but I saw this in my reader and felt it needed an immediate post. Good article from Phil Wainewright on the Software as services blog at ZD Net.

It highlights ThinkFree’s announcement from yesterday that they will offer a paid version of their app that offers offline support. More detail on the ThinkFree development is available on CNet News.

It’s clear that if you offer a Web 2.0 product your going to have to offer offline support for what is being categorized as the ’sometimes on’, ‘almost always on’, ‘occasionally connected’. There’s a lot to be discussed on this topic, but I’m on vacation so we’ll have to do that another day.

In the meantime, can we start a campaign to create a common name for the sometimes on, occasionally connected, occasionally disconnected? Have a suggested nomenclature?

Microsoft Is Your Competition

Support for the position that Microsoft Office will remain strong continues to grow. There are two interesting articles on PC World Canada.

The first a two-parter called Office Doomsday? (part two: Office Doomsday: Backsliding to the desktop) is another interesting real life experience with trying to use online products. Similar to the link in our previous post Microsoft is Worth It (probably better titled, now that I think of it, Office is Worth It).

The other is titled Online Takes on Office and is along the same vein as our prior post Microsoft Will Survive (also probably better titled, Office Will Survive). THis article highlights that Redmond is taking notice of online competitors by noting; “in its August 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Microsoft specifically listed ThinkFree as an Office rival.”

So how are online document companies going to position their products against office? What is the value proposition, key features and tag line that are going to resonate with people and get them to leave MS Office? Put on your marketing hats an throw out some tag lines…..

Online Powerpoint Tools Review

There is a nice summary of web-based Powerpoint alternatives over at makeusof.com. If you are considering using a web-based option it provides a high level comparison chart to help you make a tool selection.