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It uploads all of your Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) from your desktop to Google Docs and then keeps them in sync. Whenever you make a change on your desktop, the change is automatically reflected in the corresponding file on Google Docs, and on DocSyncer.com.
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 clipped from www.google.comMicrosoft Officially Launches Silverlight
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ContactOffice, a web office suite, is announcing that it has upgraded its online office suite to version 2.0 after months of development.
The newly upgraded platform is completely powered by AJAX, giving it a more fluid and seamless integration. It was developed using the open source Google Web Toolkit, and in addition to featuring a higher level speed and usability, it still sports messaging, calendaring, contact management, document sharing, Skype integration, SMS, fax, bookmarking and notes.
ContactOffice, which has 350,000 users, was founded in 1999 and was profitable by 2003. Two subscription packages are available in the form of paid and free versions, and companies are able to brand the online productivity suite with their own logos.
Online office suite Zoho launches offline functionality for Zoho Writer, and other applications in their suite will follow shortly.
The offline functionality was built on Google Gears, an open source project launched by Google in May 2007. Users will need to install a browser plugin to take advantage of the functionality. After that, an option will appear in the navigation bar to “Go Offline.” The feature works with Internet Explorer v.6 and higher, and with Firefox (including Mac) v1.5 and higher.
For now they are offering read-only functionality offline. Read-write functionality will appear in 3-4 weeks, the company says. Zoho will also begin to roll out offline functionality for their spreadsheet, presentation and other applications in the coming weaks.
Zoho, which competes head-on with Google Docs & Spreadsheets, managed to launch offline functionality on their product before Google did. The fact that they are using Google software to do this makes the story somewhat ironic.
(Interesting article from RedHerring)
Xcerion Replays Microsoft Formula
Step 1: Develop operating system and lock ’em in.
By Eydie Cubarrubia
Two Microsoft alumni—former CFO John Connors and former top Windows engineer Lou Perazzoli—back Sweden’s Xcerion, making it the leading candidate in the race to create an Internetbased OS, contends a Swedish VC. Success there, it’s argued, could well make it a major player in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market, which Gartner projects to rocket to $19.3 billion by 2009, from just $6.3 billion last year. “A web-based OS is extremely diffi cult to do,” says Jorgen Bladh of Stockholmbased Northzone Ventures. “Look at companies, from Microsoft to Google to many startups, trying to create it—we don’t think anyone else is even close.”
Northzone invested $10 million in Xcerion, which is based in the university town of Linköping, 150 miles southwest of Stockholm.
Xcerion claims it lets folks make do with old technology and accessing their stuff anywhere.
It also proposes to combine free software, a community for creating and selling it, and a SaaS platform. “We’re trying to become the Skype for software—do what Skype did for Internet telephony,” says CEO Daniel Arthursson (pictured). “We want to combine what eBay, Amazon, and Google do in one company—a marketplace where you can buy software, and create new software on our platform... and sell it.” The company has a seed-fi - nancing program for developers building apps on top of its OS.
Xcerion fi rst has to convince folks to use its web-based operating system, which Mr. Arthursson claims matches the latest versions of Windows or Mac OS X. Second, it has to entice developers to start making applications on its open-source software and create a community where independent coders can post their apps. And then it has to turn that community into a marketplace, where everyone congregates to buy and sell software.
Mr. Arthursson says “many, many thousands” of people worldwide have already signed up for a beta account of its operating system, dubbed XIOS. The beta launch is scheduled for the third quarter of this year.
The Internet-based OS, then, is the carrot that pulls everyone in. But is Xcerion really just another proprietary venture cloaked in open-source goodness? Mr. Arthursson contends it isn’t. For starters, it’s giving away its OS and basic apps. It’s also eschewing marketing, since “We don’t want to be [perceived] as another Oracle,” he says.
But Xcerion could still fi nd itself lumped with the proprietary set, notes Martin Schneider, a former analyst at Boston-based The 451 Group. “While it can cut down the amount of time and money spent on developing functionality, it can also be seen as a new form of vendor lock-in,” he says, like Microsoft or Oracle locks people in. Relying on the Xcerion OS suggests apps running on it would have to be compatible with it, he says. “[That could] cause data integration issues with legacy and other non-SaaS applications in place.”
At least one Xcerion rival sees things that way. “Based on what I can see on the Xcerion web site, the Xcerion OS will be a powerful but closed environment which works with its own applications, all the apps, hosted by Xcerion,” says Zvi Schreiber, CEO of G.ho.st. G.ho.st’s webbased OS works with all web applications, according to Mr. Schreiber.
Unlike open-source or SaaS companies free of compatibility issues, Xcerion could have trouble snaring big business customers. “The main thing holding existing models in place is compatibility requirements, for which organizations have a high need and individuals tend not to,” says Roger Kay, founder of research fi rm Endpoint Technologies.
If Xcerion seems unfazed by such chatter, it’s because “we’re marketing mostly to consumers,” Mr. Arthursson says. “We’re aiming for the mass-consumer market, and also small businesses.”
Even analyst Mr. Kay sees the possibilities: “If it really is easy and free, people will tend to pick it up, fi rst as individuals and then, if it’s really successful, as organizations.”
Xcerion aims to transform SaaS with its combined free-and-paid model. Eventually, Mr. Arthursson says, its software could make for cheaper, heartier computers, free of hard drives—and OS upgrades.
And things could happen fast. According to Mr. Arthursson, the OS already downloads faster than Google Apps and boots up faster than Microsoft Windows, thanks to the way it’s stored in the browser.
Interesting
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So yesterday Google rolled out a new GUI for Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and lookee here: The interface looks a lot like Windows Explorer.
On the right of the start page you'll find a navigation pane with folders. That's folders, a marked departure from the tagging taxonomic structure they inherited from Writely after acquiring the company in 2005. The new folder method does allow you to save docs in multiple folders, though, so it's kind of a hybrid approach. My guess: Google is trying to broaden the appeal of the online service to pave the way for including PowerPoint support later this year. Tags appeal to techies, folders appeal to everybody else.
Of course, this begs the question: What about Gmail? Google's e-mail app, with only 4 percent market share, continues to stick to a tags-only taxonomy. I wonder if tags are a bridge too far for layusers, who've grown up on the folder metaphor.
Yuntaa is an online desktop application that lets you store and share your digital media from a central location. Yuntaa is a hosting service.
With this service, you can upload your images, music and videos, share items with the community, and manage all of your files. Yuntaa is designed to mimic your desktop, granting you a few desktop widgets and easy access to your files.
The Yuntaa Manager is a downloadable application that lets you drag and drop items from your computer to Yuntaa, and also select files from your hard drive to be backed up on the site. These files can be automatically updated with the sync function and scheduled to occur on a regular basis.
full post
You dreamt about "desktop" remote storage: here it is. They even planned on syncing the remote file folders with the local ones thru FolderShare.
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Originally called “Live Drive” Live Folders is getting off the ground before the rumored GDrive. The service is being launched into a managed beta which will give a select group of testers 500MB of free online storage space.
Users can upload files via a webform or through an ActiveX control. Once on the system, files can be marked public, private, or be shared with other Live users by user name or through email by permalink. Files will be download only since Microsoft doesn’t have an office web suite yet.
Microsoft already has plans to incorporate file syncing into the storage cloud powered by FolderShare, which they acquired back in 2005, stepping on the toes of quite a few startups along the way.
I like the pun!
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Interesting post from techcrunch.
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Google has announced an update to Google Docs and Spreadsheets that includes improved features and support for folders. Folders are the biggest change. Google has not abandoned tagging and yet the inclusion of folders would indicate that Google is finally listening to the millions of people who prefer folders in preference to tagging.
The question I do have is what about Gmail? Without hopefully causing a flurry of people telling me how wonderful tagging is, I’m one of those people who download my email from Gmail into a desktop based email client, and I do so only due to the lack of folders in Gmail. Hopefully the inclusion of folders in Google Docs is a sign of future functionality in Gmail.
Cut&paste of a post about "WEB3.0".
With all the noise around Google Apps, some would argue that online, DHTML-based applications are poised to replace traditional desktop applications ("rich clients"). Well, I don't agree.
The web (i.e. the Internet + a web browser) is a fantastic tool to navigate through information, no doubt about that. But it was never meant to be a platform or operating system to run full blown applications.
The requirements of Internet-based applications
My belief is that, in order to be actually useable, Internet-based applications must meet the following requirements:
The limitations of the browser
Here's a (partial) list of the limitations of the browser as an application platform:Attempts to solve these issues
Many of these limitations have already been identified, and a few players are trying to address them in what they call "Rich Internet Application" frameworks:
Google is taking a different approach with Google Gears, which tries to solve some of the issues listed above for DHTML/AJAX web applications. Right now, it includes:
