I recently came across a web
service called ZCubes, which is one of those
browser-based portal apps that lets you do virtually everything under the sun - social
networking, develop a website, browse the Web using a special built-in browser, create
media (pictures, audio, video), add RSS feeds and gadgets, paint, handwriting, etc. It
claims to be able to manage over 30 file formats.
I'm usually pretty skeptical of apps that try to do too much - because in this era of 'best of breed' apps, people will usually choose a variety of branded apps for specific purposes (e.g. Photobucket or Flickr for photos, del.icio.us for bookmarks, YouTube for video, etc). Either that, or they will choose a portal solution from a big company that they can 'trust' - e.g. Yahoo, MSN or Google.
ZCubes though interests me because of the advanced ways it enables users to interact with and create content. Parag Mathur, who is VP of Product Management at ZCubes, told me that they use "the latest in next generation web technologies." He said that ZCubes marries client-side web technologies like DHTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX, DirectX, XML/XSLT, and VML with server-side technologies like ASP.NET and J2EE. The ZPaint functionality uses VML vector graphics (supported only in IE) and they are in the process of developing support for SVG to make the platform compatible with multiple browsers.
That's a lot of acronyms! But the nutshell is that ZCubes relies heavily on browser-based technologies - so no plug-ins or downloads are required.
In terms of using ZCubes, the idea is that it allows users to create "experiences" - ranging from the creation of personal pages, greeting cards, posters, portals, research/academic papers and more. Making these experiences easy to use is also key, as noted in a recent ZCubes blog post - e.g. providing simple drag-drop based utilities.
In my tests of the product, I found the technology to be promising - but at this time the UI still needs a lot of work and I'm not yet convinced of the utility to most people. Right now there aren't any compellingly unique features that will draw people from MySpace or YouTube into the ZCubes world. Hopefully this will change over the next year or so, because I like the vision of the developers and the product focus on encouraging people to be creative on the Web.
Unfortunately at this time, ZCubes only works in the IE browser. They will release a Firefox version shortly, however it won't be able to use the advanced features in ZCubes. Hopefully this too will change over time.
Going forward, ZCubes says their primary focus is on collaboration. This includes developing shared 1D, 2D and 3D spaces, chat, and a NetClipboard (a web-based clipboard where you can store content in any structure). These functionalities will be based on a new technology called NetVariables that they have developed and submitted for a patent. In addition, the company is also developing a "simple" scripting language for ZPaint, that can be used to create/record/replay and animate drawings - which will also use SMIL 2.0. Other things in development are ZSlideShow, which will be similar to PowerPoint, and multi-layered ZCubes (a ZCube inside another ZCube up to infinite levels). They're also currently developing partnerships with online storage providers.
In summary, ZCubes is all about letting people create and mix different types of content - and share the results with others. Which is an admirable goal! It just needs a bit more UI spit and polish, along with a really compelling kick ass feature or two to draw in new users.
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Yes they should definitely make it cross-browser. Because single-browser ideas don't take off. See AjaxWrite of Michael Robertson for instance. A web app that you can run on a single platform is no different than a desktop app and there's no incentive for me to use it then. Hopefully they'll fix this as soon as possible.
Posted by: Emre Sokullu | December 14, 2006 4:15 PM
man these guys are really ambitious, imagine the list of competitors they must have! they should keep innovating if they want to make a difference else as said above very few users really want a one stop solution for all the things to be done online....
Posted by: Abhishek Sharma | December 14, 2006 10:01 PM
Ouch. Zcubes have really cheaped out on interactive design. It looks like something out of the 80s software war -- let's see how many features we can cram in and don't worry about user experience too much because with that number of features they'll surely come.
-How- many different colours do they user in the interface??
What a mess.
Posted by: Julian | December 14, 2006 11:31 PM
This product will go nowhere.
Another perfect example of how foreign software shops can be filled with talented programmers but completely devoid of user interface designers, web designers, product managers, and business people.
The whole UI look and feel makes me want to vomit.
How about some market surveys to figure out what users actually want?
God, this reminds me of so many other products before that we didn't need. How about the old desktop.com?
Posted by: Troy Smith | December 14, 2006 11:39 PM
Troy... where are you from? what a stupid comment "foreign software shops"??? nazi
Posted by: siftee | December 15, 2006 12:00 AM
Starting a project like this for IE only is a deathwish. I follow all projects like this closely but the thought of not being able to run something in Firefox makes me want to give up immediately.
Posted by: franticindustries | December 15, 2006 6:29 AM
TOTAL garbage, for reasons so obvious and numerous there's no point in elaborating.
Posted by: Paulo | December 15, 2006 7:49 AM
Hi Richard,
Thanks for covering us in your blog. Just wanted to make a few comments/clarifications:
- The platform does allow users to view created "experiences" using Firefox. Currently, stuff can only be created using IE but viewing is allowed across browsers (you just need a link to the experience that can be e-mailed directly from the platform). As you've mentioned, we are working on making the platform compatible with Firefox.
-Staying on the subject of multiple browser compatibility, the reason that we started with IE compatibility is because of its inbuild functionality to easily implement things like drag-drop, interpret VML using Javascript, apply special visual effects. On the other hand, implementing these in Firefox has been quite difficult and cumbersome. Not to mention that IE still commands the biggest share in the browser market. The alternative is to use Flash but that significantly constraint the functionality you can provide and also requires a lot more time and effort to develop the same functionality (and a lot of it is simply not possible).
- I agree that people want to use branded apps for specific applications (like Photobucket for pictures etc). However, that just results in different types of content scattered all over the web. What if you want to creatively combine that different content to create a much more valuable "composition" that can be shared. Portals allow this to a limited extent since the different content just appears in pre-defined boxes and its incredibly difficult to share your work (for example, how would you share an experience about a recent trip to Europe with friends/family that included photos/videos/text/links etc.) That is why we allow users to take and combine content from Flickr/Photobucket/YouTube/Google Video etc and then enhance that content using their creativity.
-As far as the UI is concerned, we are working on improving it and it is a priority for us.
Posted by: Parag Mathur | December 15, 2006 12:34 PM
ZCubes experiences are compatible with most browsers (including Mozilla/FireFox), except for the VML part (which will be compatible after we have the SVG/VML Layer done (another month or two away).
ZCubes is not about desktop.com or Internet OS's. It is about continuous experiences.
In today's world, when a user wants to present information, he/she currently need to make a series of choices.
1. For Browsing: Choose IE/Firefox. Start one or the other. Then worry about the incompatibilities.
2. For Editing: User needs to choose Word/ Powerpoint/ Visio/etc. depending on the audience, and style of writing.
3. For Presentation: Copy from Word, trim it down, make a slide show.
4. For Albums: Go to album creator and start to put pictures in, and then organize and publish.
5. For Drawings: For the common man, there are no vector drawing capable software. Use Paint or the very complicated Adobe software.
6. And, learn all these pieces of software, which the layman finds confusing and intimidating. Also catch up with the different versions and installs.
Most people are currently used to this segmented thinking (which actually causes a lot of wasted time!). With same information in several formats and several applications - most of the time is spent on transforming one to the other. Not to talk about the cost of buying loads of packaged software that is specialized in one aspect. Or the complex process of downloading plug-ins or book-marking several sites that do pieces of things. To top this, 90% of the people do not use the full functionalities of a packaged software or deeply specialized software. These are massive amounts of wasted time and money.
ZCubes integrates your information into one place (all in the standard HTML format), accessible from everywhere and shareable with your groups of your choice, and working using the minimum of framework (of that of a simple browser). ZCubes gives you one universal model to manipulate information. And there is nothing to buy or install.
IE has been the choice of first implementation since its DHTML model is exceptional, its DirectX capabilities and vector compatible framework are unparalleled by any other browser. SVG implementation is still not great in Firefox, and we need firefox to have a greater market share (or for IE to switch to SVG) to justify loads of investment into it to make it *fully* compatible.
However, Firefox compatibility (for the full version) has been a prority (we expect to reach 85% compatibility in a few months), but the documentation on Mozilla/FF are so poorly done and simply not helpful (compare MSDN vs. Mozilla Developer Resources). It would have been so much nicer if MDC had examples [instead of theory] on implementation! Just to get drag-drop from *another* application working in Mozilla, it takes forever - since the model is so different between IE and Mozilla/FireFox. Also, things like rotation of div's cannot be done in Mozilla/Firefox at this time due to the limitations on Firefox.
Our thinking has been to provide the best features into ZCubes, than limit it to the least-common-denominator. Once we have the best features, we can achieve a high degree of compatibility with less functional platforms. The reverse approach may make it easily beaten by "you-know-who" company.
We are working on the UI aspect, and that should be ironed out soon. ZCubes is still very much a work in progress. However, let us look below the toolbar. You will see the flexibility that you would not get with any other framework.
1. Drag and drop a picture from Google Image search, drop it into the ZSpace. Make it big or small or rotate it as you wish. If you drop an image link to the ZSpace/ZCube with alt-Key pressed it will become the background of your experience/ZCube.
2. Just drag and drop a color or a special effect into an element on ZSpace and the element gets that format.
3. Group ZCubes and make a slideshow.
4. One click animation.
5. ZPaint, where for the first time you can create 3D Objects on the web, and with gradients.
6. Make text-snakes or handwrite to express yourself in creative ways.
7. Drag-Drop from Google Video/You Tube and watch it in any resolution you like.
8. Write in ANY language. Imagine what this does to the font-infested Internet waters!
And so much more. Let us look at URL manipulation features
(Not provided by any of the conventional browsers):
1. You can manipulate URL's to open 50 (or more) websites at once in ZCubes.
2. You can loop through URL patterns and access 100's of images using one URL to start with. Yes, you can do it!
3. Drag-Drop websites, and make an experience that contains open websites. (At the moment, we can only store URL's in a Word Document, not websites!)
4. Traverse through the URL tree (Alt+Click on any image) for you to dig deep into websites.
ZCubes is a new paradigm. It is not an office replicate like AjaxWrite or Zoho. Looking for exact parallels in the applications world many not be appropriate.
Since an application that handles so much so seamlessly may have never existed before.
ZCubes has been made by a team of programmers from all over the world (mostly based in the United States) - for those who are interested in where it originates from.
Thanks to all of you so much for your ongoing comments - your comments make ZCubes a better platform. Please let us know your feedback as we continue to release newer and better features and software. Thanks for being a part of the ZCubes vision.
Posted by: Joe | December 15, 2006 1:03 PM
Parag Mathur wrote, in part: "The alternative is to use Flash but that significantly constraint the functionality you can provide and also requires a lot more time and effort to develop the same functionality (and a lot of it is simply not possible)."
Is there any particular ability that you consider particularly troublesome? It might be possible to save you some time here, while simultaneously increasing your reach, and allowing you to do more too. (There's a thread on this subject over at my blog, if you'd like to explore some technical possibilities.)
jd/adobe
Posted by: John Dowdell | December 15, 2006 7:58 PM
tooo much for one service. Simplicity is the key.
Posted by: tobto | December 19, 2006 12:04 AM
Tobto wrote:
"Simplicity is the key."
Browser is the simplest interface.
Click/Drag-Drop/Copy-Paste. Even kids understand the browser interface.
There is only one model in ZCubes.
ZCube is your Document Creator. Your Slide Presenter. Your Drawing. Your Games Arcade. Your News reader. Your browser.
Store and be done. Open it and View.
Just like a paper and pencil. As simple and flexible.
ZCubes is far simpler than having to think of learning multiple applications, launching then when need be, saving them in multiple formats, and spending hours converting and presenting through multiple viewers and applications.
Most important aspect is the high flexibility that the seamless integration gives you. You never had so many options to present. The consumers of your information can also view the information in just the way they want (for example to zoom into and resize pictures on your document - try to use Word or Powerpoint to do that!). This lets the creator of the information focus on content creation rather than trying to get to ONE presentation option that EVERYONE will need to accept.
It is like Wal-mart, which integrated the retail world.
Even if you were only doing one thing, ZCubes gives you more power than conventional applications. Just look at ZPaint, that can function as a whiteboard or a blackboard too! How many paint applications out there can even allow you to write with a pen with image stroke? How many browser applications can give you the function to open ten websites at once?
ZCubes is about "Integrating your Digital Life" - not scattering it.
Posted by: Joe | December 19, 2006 4:06 PM
Great News! ZCubes is fully compatible (with full functionality) with Firefox using the IE Tab Add-on. Please visit http://home.zcubes.com/faq.htm#firefox for more information.
We are working on a pure Firefox version with more advanced features customized for Firefox. Thank you for your patience!
Posted by: Joe | December 23, 2006 1:55 PM
Extract from: http://rexduffdixon.com/?p=1132
ZCubes is truly what I would term a true Web 2.0 offering to the public to experience. In fact that is probably is an inaccurate statement. This is a probably a Web 2.1 or Web 3.0 product. It is as advertised. It is truly an all in one product.
Posted by: Joe | December 30, 2006 3:53 PM
Extract from: http://rexduffdixon.com/?p=1132
Quote: "ZCubes is truly what I would term a true Web 2.0 offering to the public to experience. In fact that is probably is an inaccurate statement. This is a probably a Web 2.1 or Web 3.0 product. It is as advertised. It is truly an all in one product." - Rex Dixon
Posted by: Joe | December 30, 2006 3:53 PM