Comments on: News: Google Biz Apps – No More Pretension, Google Goes for MSFT's Throat

By: John

John — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 15:07:31 +0000

$50/year makes that spam@.com expensive! I wish you could opt in a couple accounts, not all.

By: federica

federica — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:59:07 +0000

What is with all the Microsoft astroturfing? All these “random” people insisting Google apps will never be a trend is a bit too convenient.

By: Hiroko

Hiroko — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 16:07:26 +0000

I don't think it's aimed at Office power users. It's aimed at the people who use Office because that's all they've got. The people who make tables & calendars with Excel, or make basic business documents with Word, and then email them around. Office is way overkill for most people's day to day business needs.

If you really need Office, Google's stuff is no threat at all. But if you just need to get work done, especially in a small business, not having to babysit an Exchange server and letting people share documents without having to email them around (or worse, walk around with thumb drives everywhere) is a big win.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:11:48 +0000

Yes... its aimed at Microsoft...but its missing what today is Microsoft CRM... We are currently working on an open source "business application platform" (think salesforce.com). Its working for now with Google Apps but we are thiking of integrating it with OpenExchange etc... We are just doing our first beta. if you are interested let me know. Cheers.
http://applicationexchange.com

By: C S

C S — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:12:04 +0000

So far I think Google has been massively overhyped for the past few years. The apps are not amazing, they simply work in a basic fashion. I like Gmail although I get a ton of spam each day into its spam folder. The engines organic search results seem to be primarily filled with unethical search engine optimizers these days, and their share price or valuation is not supported. For years I have smirked at their ivy league hiring practices. News flash, not all smart people went only to Stanford or MIT. Now they are hiring 200 people a week, thats a recipe for chaos. I didn’t agree with the Youtube acquisition either. I do like having options though, so on that one point I hope google doesn’t jump the shark at some point.

By: nmw

nmw — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:31:46 +0000

“Boy, this punch is a trip — Its o.k. in my book” (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Every_Street

“Good luck getting a nice domain name though.”

I really *must* get to building out that e-z.name site!

;D nmw

By: will

will — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 08:37:45 +0000

Has anyone considered that fact that some apps don't suit the browser model? Somethings actually work better as desktop applications - things like Powerpoint, Word, Photoshop.

Just because you _can_ do it with a butt load of javascript in a web browser, doesn't mean that you should.

Just my 2c

By: ~ SearcH EngineS WeB ~

~ SearcH EngineS WeB ~ — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 05:21:30 +0000

At the Microsoft Across America Windows Vista Launch Events, the main speaker did indicate that Microsoft is very much learning from the mistakes of others before them, by not adapting to change. For Example: WANG

Microsoft is embracing the software as service model.

However, the bandwidh capacities of society can not fully justify this model for really complex and intensive work.

Also security, dependability and privacy concerns still make client - server software preferable for many medium to large businesses

By: Anjanesh Lekshminarayanan

Anjanesh Lekshminarayanan — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 02:38:00 +0000

Just yesterday, I had created a spreadsheet to be shared with my friend, a non-techie who works in the BPO industry. He found it astonishingly difficult to imitate his MS Office actions on google spreadsheets. He ended copying/pasting in MS Office and uploaded it to spreadsheets. Also, the update was fast, but not immediate - no one wants to wait a second delay for each auto-update.

If MS Office and Office Live can be integrated - something like, I edit an xls file using Office Live and my friend edits the same remote file hosted on Live, using MS Excel - then THATS A KILLER !

By: Google Tutor

Google Tutor — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 23:47:02 +0000

$50 per client per year? Not bad, especially if I'm running a small organization. Heck even if it grows to be big (my organization), $50 apiece is still cheaper than MS Office licenses, perhaps even with volume license agreements.

Of course, my main concern here would be productivity. For instance, would employees be able to work as fast (and as good) as they can with local Office apps?

Again, there are ups and down to this. For one, Web-based apps will take out the need for large storage, backup systems, etc. But then what if the network goes down? Work stops to a standstill for that duration. Then there are the privacy concerns. How will I be assured that no one from Google is taking a peek at my docs?