Web 2.0 Office
This week I've been noticing a lot of Web 2.0-style Office apps coming out. Here's a selection of some of them:
AjaxOffice - "A complete office suite usable via your browser. Your documents are safely stored on a server..."
Writely - "The Web Word Processor" (unfortunately the beta is full already). TechCrunch reviewed it and said: "Writely is a highly specialized niche application built with ajax. Ajax allows this (and other applications) to act very much like desktop apps."
The weirdly named FCKeditor is also an MS Word-like web app. It's open source too. (hat-tip Josh)
gOFFICE - "a browser-based online word processor and desktop publishing program"
Num Sum - web-based spreadsheets (hat-tip Michael Fagan). Interesting service that lets you share spreadsheets, except only the author of a spreadsheet can edit it.
Kiko - Online calendar solution powered by (of course) Ajax. TechCrunch profile here.
Those are just some of the web-based Office apps that have popped up recently. Don't forget established tools like Gmail (Google's email app that blows MS Outlook out of the water) and Chandler (the open source Personal Information Manager that has been in development for a Web eternity).
Interesting also to note this CNET article from way back in 2001, speculating that Yahoo was looking at Web-based office tools. CNET quoted from a survey on the Yahoo website at the time, asking questions about a "full-featured suite of office productivity tools available online through a browser, handheld devices and Web-enabled cell phones." Hmmm, wonder what ever happened to that?! IBM has also talked about server-based office apps in the past too.
Current Crop of web-based Office apps
But really the most interesting web-based Office apps are the current crop of Web 2.0-style apps, built by small start-ups or open source developers. Ajax seems to be a common denominator amongst a lot of them.
Is the development of this new kind of "Web 2.0" Office tool likely to be worrying Microsoft much at this stage?
I'm interested in knowing what other Webified Office tools are out there - alpha, beta or even a glint in a developer's eye. Please add to the comments and let's see if we can build a big list of them.
UPDATE, 5/9/05: In a trackback from klogs.org, I discovered a web-based Powerpoint called S5 and a web-based version of Microsoft's OneNote called (of course) Webnote. Also an online Office suite, thinkfree, which isn't vapourware like AjaxOffice (thanks to my commenters for alerting me to that). Hmmm, I think Microsoft needs to watch its back ;-)
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Well, I'm not building a Web 2.0 Office (yet), but my project -- which is about ready to launch in a couple weeks -- is what I'm calling an "online file-system" (for lack of a better term) named Openomy (http://www.openomy.com). Basically, I'm providing (a Web 2.0) online file storage that has very open API's to allow others to build apps using it.
This could, potentially, be the backbone to a great Web 2.0 Office. If one developer builds a word processor and another builds a spreadsheet application, they could both save to the user's Openomy account like a desktop app saves to a user's hard drive. Of course, I can see so many more uses for this as well, but this is just one example in the Web 2.0 office context. Email me if anyone would like to learn more, I'd love to chat!
It's somewhat ironic that, arguably, the first Ajax app was Microsoft's web version of Outlook. And, I'm pretty sure that the current Microsoft Office universe, if it were more inclusive of Firefox and other non-Microsoft products, might itself qualify as a Web 2.0 Office suite!
Having worked last year on a major SharePoint deployment, my personal impression was that there were parts of what Microsoft is doing that are what one might call cutting edge web 2.0 stuff.
At the same time, it seems there is a deeply conspired crippling and/or constraining of those developments at the points where they might obviously unshackle reliance on the actual Office Suite and other Windows breadwinners.
Personally, I think the web (1.0) generally means you don't need an Office suite. I use Office (OpenOffice) mostly in relation to clients who aren't doing a ton on the web yet.
But, then again, the spreadsheet was the killer app of the desktop revolution, and maybe a web version would be the new killer app of web 2.0?
Hmm... Let's distinguish between something lke AjaxOFfice which is nothing more than a aweb page with no released code and Kiko or Writely which you can actually use, even if the latter need more features to be true competition for MS Office.
Too, let's not underestimate what it would take to truly compete with, say Word. There are a ton of features in there and, while most might not be used by most people, a lot are used without a second thought. We've got a ways to go, but it's nice to see that we've finally started.
HalfBrain developed an AJAX office suite back in the late 90's. Apparently they made it available to the public, but then it got bought by IBM and disappeared.
(The guys who started OddPost were ex-HalfBrain developers, BTW).
Let's also distinguish an Ajax Office with an old-schol Web 1.0 Office.
Microsoft's web-based Outlook is miles away from the ajaxy sexiness of GMail, for example.
I'm looking into this as well. Theres a lot of vapour ware out there, but Wikis seem to be where it's at. Twiki and Instiki inparticular have spreadsheet, calendar and PIM applications. I signed up for Writely mere minutes before they closed the beta. Looks pretty good, GMail style interface with tagging and starring, HTML edit, author and viewer privileges. I will be giving it a thorough testing soon
Cheers
Andy Wall
As a commenter on the wiki said, AjaxOffice is 100% vaporware. There is no code but we are doing research about what is already there.
I think 2 pages on the wiki looks very interesting and everyone can of course contribute to them:
Useful packages for Ajax Office
http://ajaxoffice.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/
Useful_packages_for_Ajax_Office
Similar_initiatives
http://ajaxoffice.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Similar_initiatives
See you on the wiki!
Certainly MS Office has piles of features you'll never see in a web app, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Part of the challenge in moving our everyday apps to the web is that people have preconceived notions of what an "office" app should be. More often than not, you just need to write a memo or spec, create a basic spreadsheet, or put together a slide-show.
The text document may become an elaborately designed publication, the spreadsheet may grow beyond it's intended size, and well -- you know what happens with Powerpoint. But I think many times we only use these features because we can.
Hopefully this generation of web-based Office killers will also help people to adjust their notions of what "office" software must do. *That* is what Microsoft should be scared about!