tag:,2008:/1/tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3671- 2008-05-09T18:15:15Z Comments for Peepel: New Web Office Suite Movable Type 4.1 tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3671 2007-04-03T20:49:16Z 2007-12-16T23:11:19Z Peepel: New Web Office Suite digg_url = 'http://digg.com/tech_news/Peepel_New_Web_Office_Suite'; digg_bgcolor = '#ffffff'; digg_skin = 'compact'; Peepel.com today announced the Beta launch of its Online Office Suite, entering a competitive market alongside existing vendors like Zoho, ThinkFree, Zimbra - not to mention Google's growing Web Office suite. Peepel claims to differentiate itself by being "the only competitor offering a true multiple... Richard MacManus http://www.readwriteweb.com Peepel.com today announced the Beta launch of its Online Office Suite, entering a competitive market alongside existing vendors like Zoho, ThinkFree, Zimbra - not to mention Google's growing Web Office suite.

Peepel claims to differentiate itself by being "the only competitor offering a true multiple windows system in an online desktop." Users can open as many applications, files and tools as they wish "in multiple, resizable PeepelWindows on the same PeepelDesktop in the one browser window." They aren't pop-ups and can be resized, moved, stacked or cascaded.

The Peepel suite includes Peepel WebSheet (online spreadsheet), Peepel WebWriter (online word processor) and Peepel Desktop (a virtual desktop running in a web browser). Also Peepel WebMaps is "very near to release." As with most of its competitors, Peepel is free to use.

]]> Other interesting features include the PeepelPanel (which changes depending on which application is active), the Peepel TaskManager (used to make a window active) and the Peepel WorkSpace Manager (used to return to a desktop, as it was the last time it was saved).

Initial Impressions

Peepel is an interesting new entrant to the Web Office suite space, however at this point it looks to have some key limitations. For example importing of files is not available as yet. Also sharing of files with other users is unavailable. Plus there is a limit to your storage space (unspecified) and the individual file size limit is 2Mb. So it has a fair bit of catching up to do with Zoho, ThinkFree, Zimbra and Google - all of which are established and sophisticated Web Office suites.

However Peepel does have an offline work mode, which is "in alpha stage". Also it works in both Firefox and IE (no word on whether it supports Apple OS). In my initial tests, it performed well and has a slick, very usable interface.

One other note. The terms and conditions sound overly harsh:

"Peepel reserves the right to cancel anyones account at any time for any reason.

Peepel reserves the right to change terms at any time without notification to the user."

I don't know about you, but I'm not comfortable putting my office files into a service that can cancel my account "at any time for any reason."

Conclusion

Overall it is an interesting new entrant, although at this point seems to fall short of its competition in several key features (file importing, sharing, APIs - to name the ones that immediately stand out). But I will test it out some more. Let us know in the comments what you think...


Peepel menu


Peepel multiple windows


Word processing


Spreadsheet

]]> tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3671-comment:31202 Comment from Marc Orchant on 2007-04-03 Marc Orchant http://blogs.zdnet.com/Orchant Richard: it works just fine on a Mac in Firefox (haven't tried it in Safari yet). The windowing is very slick and the performance is quite snappy. Also, they have done a good job with the context menus (right- or control-click depending on platform) which are traditionally difficult to get right in browser-based apps.

Your observations about Peepel's limitations are spot on but I agree that this is a nice beginning. It "feels" very different from most web-based applications.

]]> 2007-04-03T22:58:40Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3671-comment:31203 Comment from Jean-Michel Decombe on 2007-04-03 Jean-Michel Decombe http://jm@decombe.com Looks very slick. However, the terms and conditions are truly a deal killer. I hope that they realize their mistake and change them. They have absolutely no reason not to offer terms and conditions similar to their competitors, especially as a new entrant. Maybe it's just boilerplate legalese that they pasted in there.

]]> 2007-04-03T23:12:59Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3671-comment:31204 Comment from Friedbeef on 2007-04-03 Friedbeef http://www.friedbeef.com Seriously - with T&C like that - why even bother

]]> 2007-04-04T00:23:01Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3671-comment:31205 Comment from Jean-Michel Decombe on 2007-04-03 Jean-Michel Decombe I just had an email exchange with the Peepel guy and he said that their terms and conditions are currently comparable to Google, but that he will be looking into making them better with the lawyers if possible. He says that Google has supposedly language similar to the one they currently use. I am sure this will be ultimately resolved to something acceptable in par with existing competitors. Just wanted to amend my previous post in that regard...

]]> 2007-04-04T00:28:50Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3671-comment:31206 Comment from Stephen Kelly on 2007-04-03 Stephen Kelly http://www.peepel.com Hi - thanks for the positive review.

We have updated the terms and conditions.

At the moment Peepel does not support Safari, but it is something that we will be looking at further down the track. At the moment we are recommedning that Mac users use Firefox on the mac.

]]> 2007-04-04T00:29:43Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3671-comment:31207 Comment from Evan on 2007-04-03 Evan Can you really take a product seriously that has the word "pee" in its name?

]]> 2007-04-04T01:25:45Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3671-comment:31208 Comment from Samuel on 2007-04-04 Samuel http://info-architecture.blogspot.com Thanks for your post! "Peepel claims to differentiate itself by being "the only competitor offering a true multiple windows system in an online desktop."
They are not the only one. Refer to a.o.: http://www.ajaxlaunch.com/ajaxwrite/

]]> 2007-04-04T13:06:12Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3671-comment:31209 Comment from Marcelo on 2007-04-04 Marcelo Another "Me Too"... whatever happened to being creative?

]]> 2007-04-04T18:11:51Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3671-comment:31210 Comment from Half on 2007-04-04 Half So, why didn't they wait to have it all ready before posting it? I never understood why people release half assed stuff. I would have at least finished the inport function.

]]> 2007-04-04T19:11:49Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3671-comment:31211 Comment from Darshan on 2007-04-04 Darshan I thought Microsoft put a patent on the 'Ribbon' they use in their 2007 office suite. Clearly peepel is infringing that

]]> 2007-04-04T21:05:29Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3671-comment:31212 Comment from John on 2007-04-04 John Anyone can get a royalty-free license to use the MS
Office 2007 'ribbon'. See here for details http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/11/21/licensing-the-2007-microsoft-office-user-interface.aspx

]]> 2007-04-04T23:53:06Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3671-comment:31213 Comment from macewan on 2007-05-16 macewan This is the layout choice that is needed in Writely/Google Docs. Not having a header/footer or page number option is limiting.

]]> 2007-05-16T16:40:25Z