Microsoft Office vs. Web 2.0 upstarts

Om Malik writes "Web Office vs. Microsoft Office", the market is very crowded with at least 17 web office up-starts, citing a Red Herring article.

The Office Alternatives
The Old	The New
Microsoft Word	Thinkfree
	Zoho Writer
	Writeboard
	Writely
	Rallypoint
	JotSpot Live
Microsoft Excel	JotSpot Tracker
	Numsum
	iRows
	Zoho Street
PowerPoint	S5
	Zoho Show
Office ‘Suite’	ThinkFree
	gOffice
	Zoho Virtual Office
Microsoft Project	Basecamp
	JotSpot Project Manager
Source: Red Herring Research

Microsoft Office is the "gold standard" for office productivity applications, and has been for more than 15 years. What are these new startups bringing to the table? Lightweight, web based applications that can be updated quickly, accessed from anywhere with a web browser, and in some cases, built in collaboration tools.

Microsoft is responding to the challenge with Microsoft Office Live, a suite of productivity applications for small business. And, Groove will be a major part of the next version of Office. Groove founder, Ray Ozzie is now Microsoft's Chief Software Architect. Expect to see collaboration and software services infused into everything Microsoft does.

Google is announcing Google Apps for Your Domain which is a collection of existing apps packaged for small business. The apps include Gmail, Google Calendar, GTalk, and Google Page Creator. The services appear to be aimed at very small businesses who don't have any internal company systems. Google says they will be offering similar services for enterprises sometime in the future.

Microsoft Office Live has all the same services and lots more. Things like a company calendar, employee directory, expense reporting, HR tools for hiring and interviewing, project management, the list goes on and on. Great stuff from Microsoft.

Here is a screen shot from Google's "Apps for Your Domain" page.

You can choose any combination of these Google services

	Gmail  -  Offer email to your members with 2 gigabytes of storage per account, search tools to help them find information fast, and instant messaging built right into the browser.
	Google Talk  -  Your members can call or send instant messages to their contacts for free -- anytime, anywhere in the world.
	Google Calendar  -  Members can organize their schedules and share events, meetings and entire calendars with others.
	Google Page Creator  -  Create and publish web pages for your domain quickly and easily with this what-you-see-is-what-you-get website design tool.

And here is a screen shot from the Microsoft Office Live site.

Shared Sites Subscribers to Microsoft Office Live Collaboration can create any number of password-protected Web sites, called Shared Sites, for collaborating among internal employees and external customers, suppliers, and vendors. Work more effectively by consolidating and sharing your business information with others, inside or outside of the company. Online business applications Take advantage of a rich and versatile set of business applications for managing your customers, opportunities, projects, employees, and general company information. The entire solution is hosted and supported by Microsoft, which saves you the cost of IT infrastructure and maintenance. Company information at work, at home, or on the go Because Office Live Collaboration is hosted by Microsoft, you can access your data from almost any Internet-connected computer (running Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher). Whether you're at work, at a job site, or on the road, you can access critical business information when you need it, regardless of location or time zone. Storage space With Office Live Collaboration, you get enough storage to promote every aspect of your business with more than 50 MB of storage space for your online business application data or Shared Site content. Plus, you can always purchase additional storage space should your business needs change. Enhanced data protection Microsoft is committed to protecting the security of its customers' business information. All your data is backed up daily for an added level of security and peace of mind. This means that any inadvertently corrupted or deleted files in your Web site or Shared Site can be recovered by simply clicking a button. There is also built-in password protection for the business applications and Shared Sites. Customer support Microsoft Office Live Collaboration customers receive free 24-hour phone, e-mail, and billing support. We're here to make getting started easy and to help your business grow and thrive.

The competition is heating up for web based office applications. Publish.com has a list of their top 10 favortite web 2.0 applications. It is a huge market and lots of competitors want a piece of it. Competition is always good for the customer, and brings out the best in the competitors.

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Comments

[Mike]

Google Spreadsheet, huh?

[Mike]

Also, in the Office suites, you forgot OpenOffice. I am pretty sure Microsoft lobbying groups have heard about it, it's too bad you haven't.

Your post is a perfect example of how to turn a bad research into a fat PR.

[Segu]

Hi,

Wish you would like to find a new ZOHO entrant into project mgmt space... check out www.zohoprojects.com

[Don Dodge]

Red Herring put the list together, not me. I was curious why OpenOffice wasn't mentioned. They rarely get any press/blog coverage, probably due to lack of market share and user interest.

Google Spreadsheet was another obvious miss. Red Herring certainly knows about it. Again,aybe because it is in beta, or for lack of users. I don't know.

I do need to learn more about the various ZOHO projects. Can someone give me a quick overview of the concept, products, business model?

[Lloyd D Budd]

"gold standard": more appropriately the "good-enough standard" full of feature blot and awkward user experience, though I have not used a newer version than Office 2000.

There is a opportunity for Microsoft to improve or for challengers to take its place, particularly in a heterogeneous desktop OS environment.

[Sierra Spencer]

Absolutely, OpenOffice 2.0, got to include it in the article. It's free!!! and open source. I'm glad to have found a couple previous commentors to have mentioned this already, but what is right must be said once again. Zoho is also right on -Great Web 2.0 capability, with online editing as a feature.