(from Reddit)
Archives for 2007
The Web Office Smackdown – Why It Does Not Matter
Posted on June 20, 2007 ·
Mighty Microsoft wants us to Say goodbye to Microsoft Office 2003, and I am happy to comply. In fact I already did. Just not the way MS wanted me to: instead of Office 2007 I migrated to Office 2.0, and, given how many people read this post (around 60k so far), I am definitely not alone.
Ironically just hours after reading the Microsoft discussion on Techmeme, another one started– this time on Web Office Suite: Who’s Leading The Pack? I do have my (biased) opinion, but the short, perhaps surprising answer: it does not matter. As to the bias, I am an Advisor to Zoho – so take everything I say with a grain of salt. In fact take everything anyone says with a grain of salt – we’re talking about freely available systems, go ahead, try them yourself.
My bias aside I still picked the apps I think keep me most productive, and for now it is Gmail from Google and all other services from Zoho. Yes, this means there are a few things I prefer in Gmail over Zoho Mail – but I’m actually using both, and due to Gmail’s architecture and a trick in Zoho Mail, my email is always in sync, no matter which one I access. Zoho Mail is currently in private beta, and I expect it to improve significantly before the public launch. (Yes, one day I don’t want to have to say I prefer Gmail )
For word processing, spreadsheet, presentation…etc. needs I do consider Zoho the better choice. There is the quantitative approach taken by ReadWriteWeb, i.e. Zoho simply has far more productivity apps than Google – but to me it’s the quality of the individual services, and as such, it’s clearly a subjective assessment. I’m in good company though – see the MIT Technology Review, Gartner and countless blogs in agreement.
Integration between all these applications is an area where Zoho’s homegrown strategy is starting to show results: for a good example just look at how Zoho Meeting sessions (the product announced today) can simply be embedded into Zoho Show slides. Compare it to today’s big news: Google’s presentation product will be piecemeal-ed together from technology and talent acquired from Zenter and previously Tonic Systems, and perhaps one day integrated with the other Google Apps acquired elsewhere. With this acquisition Google is on equal footing with Zoho, says Om Malik. I doubt it, but frankly, that statement is quite a compliment to Zoho.
. Anyway, the shopping-spree vs. homegrown integrated products comparison reminds me of the Oracle vs. SAP match in the Big Boys League (Enterprise Software).
I’ve started this article by saying it does not matter who’s better. Time to explain what I mean. I have no doubt Google will be the Web Office Suite market leader. It’s so simple: Zoho has more applications, of better quality, more integrated – but they don’t have Google’s clout. But this is not a winner-take-it-all, zero-sum game: all players, including Google and Zoho are creating a new, emerging market. It’s not about slicing the pie yet, it’s about making sure the pie will be huge – and Google’s brand is the best guarantee to achieving that. Little Zoho can be a tremendously successful business being second to Google. There will always be room for a second .. third… perhaps fourth. Data privacy, the quality of the products, better service, or just having a choice – there will always be reasons for customers to opt for a non-Google solution.
There’s more. Now that ZDNet’s Dan Farber “outed” it, we can talk about Zoho’s further plans, including Business Edition, coming later this year. (Dan’s story is actually the best backgrounder on “all things Zoho” I’ve seen published recently – I guess it was a productive yacht party
. ) Zoho does not stop at “Office” applications: Dan hints at ERP and other business applications. Almost a year ago I wrote a (then) speculative post: From Office Suite to Business Suite, and being the lazy guy I am, I’ll just quote myself here:
“How about transactional business systems? Zoho has a CRM solution – big deal, one might say, the market is saturated with CRM solutions. However, what Zoho has here goes way beyond the scope of traditional CRM: they support Sales Order Management, Procurement, Inventory Management, Invoicing – to this ex-ERP guy it appears Zoho has the makings of a CRM+ERP solution, under the disguise of the CRM label.
Think about it. All they need is the addition Accounting, and Zoho can come up with an unparalleled Small Business Suite, which includes the productivity suite (what we now consider the Office Suite) and all process-driven, transactional systems: something like NetSuite + Microsoft, targeted for SMB’s.”
Hm… today some of the above is no longer pure speculation. If I expected Google to be the Web Office market leader, I can’t even begin to predict what happens to hosted business applications.
Google has no offering in this market, and although there was a lot of speculation about them buying Salesforce.com, the “big announcement” was a disappointment. Of course they could still pull off a deal – but I wouldn’t, if I were Google. Don’t get me wrong: I would actually like to see Google enter this market, since they have the clout to effectively create and expand it. I even know who they should buy (no, it does not start with Z) – but that’s a subject of another post.
Summing it all up, I believe the winner of the “on-demand race” will not be Google, Zoho, or any of their competitors – the winners will be the customers who will have a lot more choice in picking the right business solutions later this year.
Update (7/6): Zoho vs Google Docs, of all places at Google Operating System.
Tags: web office, weboffice, office 2.0, google, google apps, zoho, zoho suite, crm, erp, smb, sme, on-demand, saas
No, Inkjet Printers Won’t Be Fixed
Posted on June 19, 2007 ·
Inkjet printers are filthy, lying thieves reports Ars Technica, referring to a new German study. They key issue isn’t that printers eat up too much ink; it’s the fact that they are lying, reporting the cartridge empty when sometimes half the ink is still available. The study also points out how multi-color cartridges need to be replaced when only one color is out.
It gets worse: some printers (like my HP All-in-One) refuse to print even using the black cartridge, when they think the color cartridge is out.
In fact it gets a LOT worse: my HP thingie refuses to SCAN, a clearly ink-free operation when it deems the cartridge dead. (Update: not just HP, here’s an EPSON example)
“The really annoying thing about this is that all the manufacturers are aware of it but they do nothing to fix it” -says Tom Raftery.
Of course they won’t, Tom. It’s not a defect, it’s by design. The printer industry has long switched to a subscription-based model, we just don’t call it that way. Give away the printer (see stupid ad?) we’ll get you by the refills…
It’s a big scam, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
Atlassian: Is There a Message Behind the New Homepage?
Posted on June 18, 2007 ·
Atlassian, makers of Confluence, the market-leading Enterprise Wiki has a new homepage. So what? – you may ask. Well, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and this case is no exception. Two pointers (not that you need any):
- Atlassian is a four-product company, and the old site reflected that.
- Their original hit was Jira, later Confluence, as a downloadable product. They were somewhat late with a hosted version – but they delivered what the market wanted, and their numbers speak for themselves.
Times change. One would have to be blind not to see they are getting a new religion: (old page to the right, new one below)
Update: One would either have to be blind, or just look at the site at another time… as it turns out (see Mike’s comment below), the big banner is a rotating one… so much for going to SaaS Church together 
Oh, well, if you want to find out more about Atlassian, you can attend their user conference in Boston on Palo Alto.
Peer to Patent Project Live
Posted on June 18, 2007 ·
I previously wrote about New York Law School professor Beth Noveck’s experiment to create a Wikipedia-like system that allows outside peer reviewers participate in the patent examination / review process.
Why? It’s really simple: the US Patent Office is overwhelmed, it has very few examiners with deep knowledge of tax law, especially of “creative technics” – just like it feels outdated in technology, software issues. Add to this the explosion in the number of patent applications “leaving examiners only 20 hours on average to comb through a complex application, research past inventions, and decide whether a patent should be granted.”
In an unlikely cooperation of Government, technology giants like IBM & HP and Academia, the Peer to Patent Project launched last Friday. The new system already has a “competitor”, in the form of a private initiative, Wikipatents.com.
It’s great to see wikis put to good use 
Details on CNet.
When a Spreadsheet is NOT a Spreadsheet
Posted on June 18, 2007 ·
Looks are deceiving. Several sources reported that Smartsheet, the web-based “spreadsheet creation” service, has raised $2.69 million in a Series A-4 of funding, led by Madrona Venture Group. The true part is that they received funding – congratulations – but what everyone got wrong is calling it a spreadsheet service. It is not.
Smartsheet is in the business of collaborative task management & tracking, and they came up with a simple idea: why not use an interface that just about all computer-users are familiar with: the spreadsheet. Clearly more users are familiar with 
the look-and-feel of spreadsheets than with task management / project management systems. I think it’s a great approach – no wonder Smartsheet won two awards at the recent Under the Radar Office 2.0 event.
Another Under the Radar participant, and one I happen to like chose a similar approach: Wrike allows users manage projects without having to use project management software – it’s all done via email. Interestingly, everyone got this one – nobody’s calling Wrike an email system, just because they manage projects via email. . By the same token, Smartsheet is not a spreadsheet service – for online spreadsheets you’d have to try EditGrid, Zoho Sheet or Google Docs & Spreadsheets.
This paradigm shift – ignoring the more complicated UI of special systems and using widely popular, familiar systems to carry out more complicated tasks – is not unknown even “heavy” enterprise software: a prime example is SAP’s Duet: accessing ERP functions via Office apps.
High School Exit Exam Protests – How About Studying Instead?
Posted on June 14, 2007 ·
It’s that time of the year again – high school students who failed California’s Exit Exam are out on the streets picketing, carrying signs like: “The exit exam is a scam“.
“It’s not fair,” senior Priti Nahar said of the ban Wednesday. “They get the credit. They went four years in high school. They worked hard, and they should walk the stage.”
“The school board is stealing this celebration and not acknowledging the work students have done.”
“Worked hard”? Apparently not hard enough. The diploma should award achievement, not “hanging there”.
There is a competitive world out there, at the end of High School it’s about high time (pun intended) to learn that achievement is what gets rewarded, not sitting through all these years.
Update: Here’s a teenager who knows a thing or two about achievement.
Google Blinked. Gotta Love the Logo
Posted on June 13, 2007 ·
Gotta love this logo on ValleyWag… full story of the Google vs. eBay match is on TechCrunch, TechDirt, InfoWorld.
Build Applications Without Coding in Zoho Creator 2.0
Posted on June 12, 2007 ·
Yesterday TechMeme featured an interesting discussion on Why (some) journalists should learn (some) code. Matt Waite, the reporter makes his case about data analysis and presentation being important parts of journalism today. He offers up small chunks of script, then explains them in plain English. Of course the problem is, you still need to know the code, the translation is one-way, from script to English, you can’t built an application the other way around… or .. can you?
Well, almost. That’s the problem the newly released version of Zoho Creator tackles. Creator, a database / custom application generator tool has been available for quite a while, Zoho claims there are over 30,000 applications built by users. Here’s a comparative review by Ismael Ghalimi at ITRedux. The key new features in Release 2.0:
- Completely revamped User Interface – Now you can create your app by simple dragging & dropping elements.
- Script Builder: Create code without knowing code. Add advanced processing logic by dragging chunks of script from a list of easy-to-understand functions.
- Simply embed your Input Forms and Data Views in web-sites, blogs and other Zoho Applications
This video provides a short overview on using Zoho Creator. This longer, 8-minute version focuses on how to build scripts.
Here’s a good example of Christopher Conway, Professor of Literature, a non-techie in his own words building a course database in Zoho Creator – and that was in the “old” release. Getting back to the journalism question above: yes, it is useful if you can build simple database application, but you really no longer have to learn coding anymore. Don’t take my word for it: go ahead, play with it.
(Update: See Thomas’s first impressions here.)
Finally, a little bonus to my readers: I have a few free tickets to give away to Zoho’s Yacht Party at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston next week. If you’d like to attend, please register here using promo code 7410. When the promo code no longer works, tickets are sold out.
Related posts: Wired, Mashable, ZDNet, Web Worker Daily, ConnectedInternet.
Staying on TechMeme?
Posted on June 11, 2007 ·
About two months ago following Jeff Nolan’s trail I discovered a fresh, challenging, thoughtful new blog, Techfold. I’m glad to see that Rod, the “mystery” author listened to me (and others) and revealed his identity. His blog is still in my reader (is it, Google?) for it’s good content.
Today Rod is lamenting whether he got de-listed by TechMeme. I don’t know if you can get “listed” or “de-listed”. Gabe protects his secret sauce, acknowledging that there is a “seed” group of blogs his algorithm follows, but also adding TechMeme discovers a lot of new sources. Like I said, I don’t know. Robert Scoble recently called TechMeme: the anti-linking engine. This post is an unabashed experiment to see if we can push Techfold onto TechMeme. 
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