So, the launch today of Google Apps for Your Domain and Google Apps for Education gives us something else to explore in this area — along (for example) with the Zoho range of products. Office-on-the-web is attractive for reasons of collaboration, cost-cutting and productivity (Richard MacManus, responding to Rod Boothby's paper — HTML version here) and, self-evidently, you can use the same system to have access to your own documents, for your own use, on any machine, anywhere.
Google doesn't yet have an Office 2.0–a full suite of hosted productivity applications aimed at the Microsoft Office crowd, especially the small- and medium-sized firms–but starting tomorrow companies or organizations can deploy Google email, calendar, chat and Web page (Page Creator) hosting for free (ad supported). The set of Google communications applications is an extension of Gmail for Your Domain, and has some limited UI customization and administration features. Later this year, Google will offer a subscription service with additional storage and support options. …
Microsoft's base of Office users–most of the business users in the developed world–aren't going to defect to Google or other products like Zoho's suite overnight. And, Microsoft is developing its own suite of hosted Windows Live applications and looking forward to Vista improving the overall Windows applications experience. But, there is disruption in the air, and the Microsoft Office monopoly is definitely going to face a major competitive threat in the near future… Dan Farber, ZD Net (writing yesterday)
Connectivity remains an issue:
Another pressing issue is how Google (and others in the Software as a Service game) will adapt their applications for offline use. I’d be willing to bet that when most Gmail users need to draft a message offline they use…MS Word. I just got back from a weekend on the Chesapeake Bay, and I can tell you that there wasn’t a hot spot for miles — accessing Web apps just wasn’t an option. And now that Boeing has infamously pulled the plug on its inflight Internet service, airline flights remain the great offline terrain that challenges SaaS to accommodate business travelers. Publishing 2.0
'Occasionally connected': not good! Another article from ZD Net:
Computing is about using standalone smart devices (PC's, PDA's, cellphones today and intelligent peripherals - smartTV, media centers, home appliances, etc. tomorrow) which are "occasionally connected" to the Internet. Ok, the more accurate phrase is probably "usually" or "almost always" but the key is that sometimes they are not connected. Once you accept that, you immediately acknowledge that a browser-only solution is not viable. One needs both online and offline (PC) solutions and applications. … I'd rather bet on Microsoft (and 3rd parties) solving the technical challenges of offline synch and "occasionally connected" services than betting on Google providing me with 100% 24x7 connectivity that leaves me without anything when (and not if) it goes down.
Then there's privacy (as ever with Google) — GigaOM baulked at this — security, confidentiality … all aspects of 'my data'. And here's Kent Newsome:
Bold but troubling is word via InformationWeek that "Google's plans include prompting people who send Microsoft Office documents using Gmail to translate those files into Google's formats for editing on Google.com, presumably in a forum where ad space is up for sale." One of the great and valid fears of IT managers is data spread- when your data is spread all over the place, it becomes harder to protect and manage.
(At this point, by association, I looked up Eric Norlin's piece from June of this year, Google's authentication vs. Microsoft's Live ID: '… one company is clearly advancing the cause of "identity 2.0", "web 2.0", "Net 2.0" — call it what you will — and that company is Microsoft. The other company is deepening the silo and building the walled garden'. Worth clicking through to.)
More interestingly, we have to ask what we need from web-based "Office" apps. GigaOM comments (elsewhere), 'Web Office should not be about replacing the old, but inventing the new web apps that solve some specific problems'. Via that last posting, I got to Red Herring's piece, 17 MS Office Killers, and here's what caught my eye:
The traditional Office suite is an old idea, said Jason Fried, chief executive of Chicago-based 37 Signals. “That’s 15-year-old thinking,” he said. “The modern office is more about real-time collaboration and group chat, and not just a spreadsheet and processor.”
To that end, 37 Signals created an online word processor called WriteBoard to offer—along with project management software called Basecamp—a group chat product called Campfire, as well as shareable to-do lists called Ta-da Lists. WriteBoard, said Mr. Fried, is a simple online word processor. … “Microsoft Word seems like complete overkill for sharing text here and there,” he said. “You don’t need tables or formatting all the time. You need a place to write text, make changes, and pass around.” So far, 350,000 WriteBoards or web-based documents have been created.
So, '37 Signals positions its product as complementary to Microsoft’s':
WriteBoard has its shortcomings, Mr. Fried is not above admitting. “It is not for writing your 300-page functional specification document or long manuscript,” he said. WriteBoard also lacks familiar formatting functions like font, paragraphs, or text point size. Users can take the text and then move it into a Word document or a PDF file, or publish it as HTML.
And back in June, Richard MacManus said: 'the main benefit of web-based Office products is that they'll extend the functionality of desktop office products in many useful ways'.
I use Basecamp, but I'll be watching Zoho for sure (see Zoho Projects and Zoho Virtual Office) — and the promise of a single sign-on. As ever, Richard MacManus has a finger on the pulse.
