Written by Emre Sokullu and edited by Richard MacManus
Over the past few weeks, we have examined possible GoogleOS scenarios and covered top WebOS offerings. GravityZoo is a very early stage WebOS, with a whole
different - and noteworthy - approach.
Firstly, let's revisit what a WebOS is. A WebOS is a web-based app (generally powered by either AJAX or Flash technologies) that emulates the application capabilities of an operating system. It's basically a virtual desktop that gives you communication tools (like email and instant messaging), productivity tools like word processing, and ability to play games and any other application that you'd find on a typical OS like Microsoft Windows.
But that's not all - a WebOS should be an expandable platform (just like Windows) that gives developers the right tools (IDE, APIs) to develop new applications and add new utilities. And that's the advantage of a Web-based "OS" - it gives you the new ability to use it remotely and not be restricted to one PC. This is a huge need in today's world, because increasingly we use more than one computer from various different locations. So each time we sit down to a computer, a different scene awaits us - different applications and different documents. WebOS can solve this inefficiency, by taking your productivity with you everywhere you go.
Zoho recently released a set of APIs that lets anyone write their own program to use Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheet data [disclosure: Zoho is a sponsor of Read/WriteWeb]. As Matthew Ingram explained, it "means that other companies -- online storage providers such as Box.net, Carbonite or Mozy, for example -- can easily build support for Zoho's services into their own products."
Also Google recently announced their Google Spreadsheets API, as noted by John Musser. This API is part of the GData set of APIs that Google has already utilized in Google Calendar and Google Base. Here's how it's described:
Recent Google acquisition JotSpot found itself the subject of unwanted attention this week, when an early customer complained of being shut out after the Google deal. A blog post by someone named Kevin (no last name supplied) had all the gory details, but Kevin then subsequently deleted it (note: I'd already read it before it disappeared). Techcrunch then posted the cached text of the post. My concern when I first read it wasn't so much for the damage to JotSpot's reputation (which the company is more than capable of defending), but the implication that hosted applications in general carry more risk than people normally assume. Here's the key extract from Kevin's post:
"Pick your hosted application service provider well. Relying on web hosted application services is much more dangerous than I ever would have assumed. This is especially true for those services that are “closed source” like those of JotSpot."
What's more, in the Techcrunch comments another person who claims to have been a JotSpot customer has his/her say:
Holotof is a
network of "advertising creatives", which enables businesses to come and pitch them work -
in the form of ad projects and campaigns. The idea then is that creatives submit ideas for
the pitch and the client chooses the best one to work with. The site was launched in May
this year by Robby Ralston, a native of Peru. Robby told me via email that Holotof
currently has 900+ creative professionals from 68 countries signed up. His description of
Holotof:
"Advertisers from all over the world will drop their briefs at holotof and we will sent them our ideas in return. They will choose a winner, who will get the cash award."
Of course, dropping your briefs is liable to get you in trouble some places... but in Holotof it is a chance to get creative people competing for your business. I like the idea and it seems a good way for advertising creatives to get work - especially for young or inexperienced creatives, who are trying to build a reputation in their industry.
Interesting podcast
interview by
Gizbuzz, with Jen Mazzon and Sam Schillace of the Google Docs and Spreadsheets team (both ex-Writely).
They start off by saying that D&S is aimed at "people who need to collaborate and
share their stuff online". To the question of whether people are using it instead of
desktop apps (such as Excel), Jen said that "it's designed to enable people to work
together online really seamlessly and easily - and if you're just creating something in a
vacuum, then you might as well use a desktop and an offline application. But the minute
that you need to start getting contributions and input from other people, then it's
[D&S] a great solution."
I've written before about how collaboration and sharing are two compelling reasons for Web-based office software, but it's great to hear it from the horse's mouth (Google I mean).
I know, a predictable (almost tabloid-y) blog headline. But in this case, there really is some interesting back and forth going on between Microsoft and Google currently - especially with regards to office software.
Firstly Google CEO Eric Schmidt wrote an article for The Economist, in which he takes aim at Microsoft with this:
"In 2007 we’ll witness the increasing dominance of open internet standards. As web access via mobile phones grows, these standards will sweep aside the proprietary protocols promoted by individual companies striving for technical monopoly. Today’s desktop software will be overtaken by internet-based services that enable users to choose the document formats, search tools and editing capability that best suit their needs."
OK he doesn't specifically name Microsoft, but it's obvious who is at the top of the list of "individual companies" Schmidt is referring to. Also not specifically mentioned is office software, but in this case Google's actions speak louder than their words. In recent months we've seen a flurry of product releases and acquisitions in the office space by Google - Google Apps For Your Domain (a kind of lightweight office suite which includes a start page), the transformation of Writely and their online spreadsheet product into Google Docs & Spreadsheets, the acquisition of JotSpot... it all points to an increasing emphasis on office software from Google.
On my ZDNet blog last night I took a look at the evolving world of Web Office widgets. I noted that the personalized start page Pageflakes has just introduced a couple of new office "flakes" - a Calendar Flake and a Notepad Flake. They also have an existing Mail Flake, as well as flakes for Writely and iRows. Netvibes, Webwag and others also have similar offerings. Is this a sign that we'll soon see a widget office suite!? That may sound odd at first, but when you think about it - componentized web apps are potentially very useful on a company Intranet. From my ZDNet post:
Those of you who read John Milan's insightful article on R/WW about the coming convergence of Web apps and desktop apps, will be interested in a new development by Blake Ross - famous in the Web world for co-founding Firefox. Blake has an intriguing new startup called Parakey, which is going to be a WebOS for the masses. In a long IEEE Spectrum article, Blake describes the product:
"As he describes it, from a user’s point of view, Parakey is “a Web operating system that can do everything an OS can do.” Translation: it makes it really easy to store your stuff and share it with the world. Most or all of Parakey will be open source, under a license similar to Firefox’s."
Readers of my ZDNet blog will be familiar with my obsession earlier this year with the WebOS. There are a lot of small, mostly European, startups building a WebOS system - a virtual desktop, if you will. Check out my WebOS market review from April, to see some of the startups in this space. None of them have made any headway into the mainstream market yet - in fact most are still building out beta versions of their products. Let's not forget also that Google (in particular) and Microsoft are very well positioned to come stampeding into this market, like a herd of.... er, elephants.
News this morning that JotSpot, a favorite Web Office contender of mine, has
been acquired by Google. I've spoken to co-founder and CEO Joe Kraus several times over the past
year or so and have found him to be one of the most eloquent people on the topic
of Web Office. Here's what he wrote this morning on the Google
blog:
"As we built the business over the past three years Google consistently attracted our attention. We watched them acquire Writely, and launch Google Groups, Google Spreadsheets and Google Apps for Your Domain. It was pretty apparent that Google shared our vision for how groups of people can create, manage and share information online. Then when we had conversations with people at Google we found ourselves completing each other's sentences. Joining Google allows us to plug into the resources that only a company of Google's scale can offer, like a huge audience, access to world-class data centers and a team of incredibly smart people."
See also the post on JotSpot's blog. To me, JotSpot is a company that 'gets' the Web Office, as evidenced by my interviews with Joe. In terms of their product, what started out as a wiki company slowly but surely was morphing into a Web Office suite contender this year. Back in July, JotSpot released its 2.0 version. It was described by Joe Kraus at that point as "wikis meets Microsoft Office". The upgrade enabled JotSpot users to collaborate on different types of "office-like" products. Its spreadsheet product, Tracker, was integrated into their core wiki product - along with calendars, File Cabinets, Photo Pages. In the October release of JotSpot, more apps were added to their application gallery: group directory, forum and To Do Lists.
Last week I
spoke to Jeremy Jaech, CEO and president of Trumba,
whose team is building an innovative online event calendaring system aimed at
enterprises. Jeremy Jaech was also the founder of both Visio and PageMaker
– two of the Internet’s early successful desktop publishing systems. It's basically the same engineering team from both Visio and PageMaker too, and Trumba has financial backing from Kleiner Perkins, August Capital and Oak Investment Partners.
So the stars are aligned on this web app, it seems, in terms of heavyweight developers
and VCs.
At first glance Trumba is hard to fathom. Perhaps being an enterprise application has something to do with that, as those tend to be more complex than most consumer web 2.0 apps. Trumba's latest product release, announced this week, is called Trumba Connect. It's a website calendaring and event marketing solution for companies. Included in this package are tools for publishing and promoting events online, plus connecting those events to personal calendars. It's a hosted service, with prices starting at $99.95 per month.
