6th Week of Class: Paper will become obsolete...any minute now

I've blogged about a few social and/or entertaining things the Internet has to offer: Twitter, Hulu, & Wikipedia. But what about work? Not business but the regular 9 to 5 stuff.

Companies have begun offering online versions of desktop software, also known as Software as a Service. Google and Zoho currently have several things available while Microsoft will have a product online next year.

Google

My group decided to use Google Docs to edit the PowerPoint for our presentation. Google doesn't call it PowerPoint but it did start off as a PowerPoint file. That users will be able to import and export these files in MS Office formats will hurt Microsoft's chances at dominating the market when it launches the online version of Office.

You can create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms with the free version. While you can't do as much as you could in the desktop version of Office (no WordArt for the PowerPoint for example) I was surprised to see how much you could do.

Google does have a business, standard, and academic versions that you can pay for but they practically hid this. There's no option to 'upgrade' while you're logged into your Google account. When you're not logged in you have to click on 'New Features' before you see a link for 'For Work or School'. They explain the business benefits of Google Docs but don't do a free vs paid comparison. Frankly, I find this baffling.

Zoho

I hadn't heard of Zoho before but I was impressed by how much they make available. Right on their home page you can see a list of Productivity/Collaboration Apps and Business Apps. In addition to the types of applications you can get with Google Docs for free you can get CRM and create database apps. (Some of the things Zoho has Google also offers, just not as part of Google Docs.) There's also a marketplace where you can buy apps or post what kind of app you need created.

Zoho doesn't hide that there is a version that you pay for (most of the business apps list the limit on the number of free users it can have) but they do hide the demo. I didn't see it mentioned until I was reading the Privacy Policy and there's no link to it there.

Microsoft

I didn't find anything about Microsoft Office 2010 being online directly from Microsoft but there are articles and opinions on it. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote will the programs that will be available online.