About Cloud. And SaaS. And How “Big Apps” Will Always Stay Local
I’ve been doing this whole SaaS thing for a few years now, and fondly remember at the start when people said that only the most svelte of applications (or, more correctly, the applications with the most svelte of payloads) would ever move to the cloud. The people who used to say his would point to [...]
Battle in the Clouds: Intelligence on Google Apps
Google Apps is used by more than 40 million people and signs up 5,000 new businesses every day according to numbers recently cited by Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. But what do all those millions of people actually use Google Apps for, and how heavily do they use it? At Spanning we have a unique view into [...]
Windows Live Microsoft Word Document UX vs. Google Docs UX
Before even getting to the point of writing a document, there are very distinct user experiences (UX). I have my own preferences, but I am very curious what others think. When somebody decides to create a new Microsoft Word Document in the Windows Live Site on their Skydrive they’re presented with this interface. Windows Live [...]
Microsoft Adds Co-Authoring Support For Online Word App
After dismissing realtime co-editing feature as too difficult to implement, Microsoft has made a turn around and implemented it on their cloud based Word application. This reversal of stance comes after Microsoft has realized that one of the reasons why users are attracted towards web based office suite is the idea of co-editing. Zoho Office [...]
Microsoft Office 365 Getting Closer
Microsoft is rapidly moving Office to an Internet app that will run in a browser. It is called Office 365. It’s a huge part of Microsoft’s all-in cloud strategy. Office 365 was introduced in limited beta last year, bringing together Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online in an always-up-to-date cloud service. Today [...]
Can Office 365 Help Microsoft’s Future?
Microsoft today took the wrappers off their Office 365 offering and allowed any business to try out the beta version. The general availability is scheduled for sometime later in the year. Office 365 is Microsoft’s answer to other online Office Suites such as Google Apps and Zoho Office Suite. After dilly dallying for a long [...]
Google Docs, Why 90% of Users Should Migrate Yesterday
Google Docs That video alone pretty much says it all. It isn’t about the word processor, or the device, it’s just about writing what you want when you want and how you want. The old legacy mindset of an installed word processor is a bit feeble these days. Especially considering the integrity of Google Docs [...]
Office Web Applications
This year’s Microsoft Professional Developers Conference is full of announcements and surprises. The next big announcement besides Windows Azure (and Windows 7?) is the new “Office Web Applications” live service. The Office team will be delivering the five most popular Office applications as light weight browser based versions that include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and [...]
Wikis for the Average User
I know it's an unpalatable thought for many people reading this blog, but most enterprise users feel remarkable comfortable in the MS Word environment. Getting them to feel that comfortable within a Wiki world is a challenge. Atlassian Confluence has taken a big step to easing their pain by delivering their Office Connector functionality. The [...]
