sorted by: recent | see : popular

Content Tagged with office + Web2.0

The latest ReadWriteTalk podcast is up and it's a chat with Eric Gilmore, Senior Product Manager for Office Live at Microsoft. In particular Eric talks about Office Live Workspace, a free web-based extension of Microsoft Office that lets you access your documents online and share your work with others. Our own Sarah Perez recently compared Office Live Workspace to Google Docs. In the podcast, Sean Ammirati questioned Eric about that comparison...

Sarah concluded that "Office Live Workspace [...] may not have the collaboration features of Google Docs, but the workspaces feature is unique. Plus, you have the capabilities of full-featured Office software available (assuming you own it)!". In response, Eric replied that "fundamentally, our approach is quite different than [...] Google." Specifically he said that Microsoft's approach is to "bridge the gap" between rich client applications on your desktop and the Web. Their strategy is all about providing "the best experience no matter if it’s on your phone, on the desktop, or on the Web." He takes a slight shot at Google when he mentions the scale that Microsoft can achieve in office software:

"You know, you look at some traction that some of our competitors have gotten. It’s quite small. It’s quite niche. And I think one of the advantages I think Microsoft brings on the table is how can we scale this kind of capability to millions and millions of people. And Office Live Workspace is really the first service that’s in this area. And you’re going to see us, which we’ve already showed, is we’re going to rapidly improve it."

Eric Gilmore also clarified the confusion around the Microsoft Live brand:

"When we think of Live, it’s all user managed. So the content is all about me. All the services is, kind of, I control -- my company or my organization I work for really don’t control live services. That’s kind of the piece that’s important. And typically, live services today are free, so they’re free online so they can take advantage of that."
emphasis ours

This is an interesting point, becase traditionally Microsoft Office has been a system controlled by the IT department and CIOs. With Office Live Workspace, contends Gilmore, much of the control goes back to the user. So the question becomes: how are CIOs and the IT department dealing with that? I thought Gilmore's response to this was especially revealing about Microsoft's Office Live strategy:

"Well, I talk a lot to CIOs and other businesspeople and enterprises.

And I think they’re really grappling with trendy term of consumerization of IT. They’re seeing this kind of wave of really innovative Web 2.0 application sinking into the enterprise. And quite frankly, they’re struggling with how to deal with them. Do they embrace them? Do they shut them down? And I think there are significant challenges they have to deal with: Security, privacy, manageability, a lot of the core things that IT professionals care about.

When we look at the problem they have to deal with, a lot of times, we get the question, "Do you guys support Workspace being in the enterprise?" And I absolutely respond, "We love it. We hope people use it." If it goes in the enterprise, it’s a great thing because typically it’s solving frustration or pain for those employees. And today, a CIO and IT pro have to deal with consumer email being the biggest leak in information outside the firewall.

And we look at Workspace as providing a great collab experience, whether it’s ad hoc collaboration or not, if you don’t have something like SharePoint where there is a lot of that security and privacy manageability aspects to the infrastructure. So we think it’s a bridging aspect. It’s better than email. We think it’s a great ad hoc collaboration. It’s free."
emphasis ours

Eric concludes that longer term, Microsoft sees Office Live Workspace as "a way to bridge the gap between the Live ID world and the Active Directory world."

Conclusion

Perhaps what it comes down to, when comparing Microsoft Office Live Workspace with Google Docs, is this: Microsoft sees its product as a 'lite' version of SharePoint; whereas Google, despite its past protestations that it aims to complement Microsoft Office and not replace it, is very much about routing around the need for big bulky desktop apps like MS Office and SharePoint.

The word "bridging" or "bridge" was used a few times in the podcast, which to me indicates that Office Live Workspace is just as much about enticing customers to 'upgrade' to the desktop experience (MS Office, SharePoint) than it is about bringing the Web to MS Office users. This is an entirely valid strategy, but it still means that Microsoft's entire office strategy depends on desktop software.

That leaves the door ajar for the likes of Google and Zoho to take market share from MS Office, over time, by providing a completely 'web native' approach.

Check out the full podcast with Eric Gilmore of Microsoft on ReadWriteTalk.

Fortune is reporting that Microsoft may be eyeing the iPhone as a potential outlet for their software, including Office applications and voice control for Apple’s iPhone.

“It’s really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone,” Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Specialized Devices and Applications Group, told Fortune on Monday. “To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we’re actually in the process of trying to understand that now.”

This comes fast on the heels of the SDK announcement and some rumors that Slilverlight might be coming to the iPhone before Flash.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

If your team is spread out over a wide geographic region, online collaboration tools are key to getting everyone on the same page. Something that dispersed teams haven't had much opportunity to use use are whiteboards, which can be really useful in brainstorming sessions. But now, with Twiddla, this year's winner of the Technical Achievement award at SXSW, comes a team whiteboarding service that offers a no-setup, online meeting web site for team collaboration.

Twiddla can be used to mark up web sites, graphics, photos, or even start brainstorming on a blank canvas. Users can either sign up for the service by creating an account, or can just start using it in "guest mode." A public sandbox is also available if you just want to check it out to see if it would work for you.

If you do decide to use it to set up your own meetings, you can set them as either "public" or "private" and email invitations to your intended participants. Meeting participants are displayed in Twiddla's sidebar and with just a click, you can start chatting with them using an audio chat feature that utilizes your computer's microphone and speakers to take the brainstorming session from a chat session to a live conference call.

Image from the Twiddla blog

The whiteboard tool in Twiddla lets you draw freehand, insert shapes, insert text, and insert media. You can use Twiddla's built-in shapes or upload files from your own computer. Text can be entered in directly or can be placed in a text bubble or on a post-it note. A box at the top of the screen lets you enter in a URL of your choosing to pull up any web site on the internet. You can then overlay your drawings on top of the web site that is displayed.

But I think the Twiddla team sums it up the best. When I clicked over to their "features" page, only two items were mentioned: "Kicks A**, Doesn't Cost Anything."

I'd like to add to that list: Works.

Twiddla is now in public beta.

Today, Microsoft announced that the Office Live Workspace beta is publicly available for everyone to access. The site, a free web-based extension of Microsoft Office, lets you access your documents online and share your work with others. Some say that the service's launch is a direct response to Google's entry into the web office space with their Google Docs online service. If that's so, then the question now is: did Microsoft just trump Google Docs? Or does Google Docs still rule online office suites?

Office Live Workspace: The Basics

Before we review the features in detail, let's look at an overview of what Office Live Workspace offers.

After signing up for Office Live and signing into the service (and no, you don't have to have an MSN email address to do so), you are presented with the "Documents" area where you can upload and view files and share them with others.

However, the defining feature is of this service are the "workspaces." The "My Workspaces" section is to the left of the main window. You can create a new workspace by clicking on the plus button next to "New Workspace."

You can start with a blank workspace or choose one of the workspace templates provided. These templates include things like "Class Workspace," "Event Workspace," "Household Workspace," "Job Search Workspace," and more. Loading one of these templates populates the Workspace with some sample documents. For example, the "Job Search Workspace" comes pre-loaded with documents like a resume, a cover letter, an interview schedule, interview preparation notes, etc.

Files can't be edited from within workspace, but clicking on "edit" will open them up in Microsoft Office (of course). Individual documents or entire workspaces can be shared with others. Using the provided Office plug-in allows for one-click access from the desktop software to the workspace.

The workspace doesn't offer offline collaboration - instead documents are "checked out" and "checked in," but the service does integrate with SharedView for real-time screen sharing.

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Both Google Docs and Office Live Workspace are free services, but each has its own unique set of features.

Storage Space

Microsoft Office Live Workspace is limited to 500 MB of space, which equates to about 1000 Microsoft Office documents.

I found it hard to pin down Google Docs storage space. Going into the basic information section of docs.google.com, I found two sentences stating: "Each user has a combined limit of 5000 documents and presentations and 5000 images," and "Each user has a limit of 1000 spreadsheets." However, an actual quota in MB was not specified.

File Types

Google Docs is limited to the types of files their service allows you to edit online: HTML, .txt, .doc .rtf, .odt, .xls, .csv, .ods, .tsv, .tsb, .ppt, and .pps.

Office Live Workspace allows you to upload all kinds of files, not only Office document file types. So, in addition, you can upload .PDFs, pictures, or seemingly any kind of file except those on the blocked list, which are blocked to protect users as they are file types Windows sees as executable files.

File Sizes

Google Docs allows for documents of 500 K each, plus up to 2 MB per embedded image. Presentations can be 10 MB in size. Spreadsheets can be 10,000 rows, or up to 256 columns, or up to 100,000 cells, or up to 40 sheets - whichever limit is reached first. Each spreadsheet can have up to 20,000 cells with formulas.

Regardless of the file type, Office Live Workspace allows for individual files as large as 25 MB.

Sharing

Google Docs allows for sharing of a file or files by checking the checkbox next to them and clicking "share" from the menu. Those you are sharing with can be invited as "Collaborators" or "Viewers." You can add a short note along with the invitation. Documents and presentations can be shared with 200 combined viewers, but spreadsheets have no limit.

Similarly, Office Live Workspace allows you to share documents or workspaces with others and mark them as "editors" or "viewers". You can add a note along with the message. You can also check a box to allow "everyone to view this without signing in," and/or a box to "send me a copy of the sharing invitation." Below, a read-only preview of the file is displayed. Files or workspaces can be shared with up to 100 people.

Both offer address book integration for finding recipients' email addresses.

Collaboration

In Google Docs, collaborators have the ability to work on files together, in-real time. Ten people may edit and/or view a document or presentation at any given time. Fifty people can edit a spreadsheet at the same time.

Although Office Live Workspace allows for collaboration, it's not real-time, online collaboration. Instead, if one user is editing a file, another will be informed the file is "checked out." When they finish editing and save their changes the document is checked back in for other users to access.

Versioning

Both Google Docs and Office Live Workspace keep track of older versions of a file. You can use the web interface of either to roll back to a previous copy.

Batch Uploads

Google Docs allows you to browse for a file on your computer and upload it to the service, one-by-one. Documents and presentations can be emailed in, but not spreadsheets. In January, Google released a Document List Uploader tool that provides drag-and-drop uploads to the service. Third party tools like DocSyncer can automatically upload your documents from your PC to Google Docs.

Office Live Workspace also allows for Batch Upload, but if you're not using IE, you won't see the option. IE users can click on "Add Document" and they will be presented with the option to upload a single document or multiple documents.

Integration

Google Docs is the whole offering - there is no offline software to use, but if you needed to edit files with offline software, like Microsoft Office or Open Office, because you hit a wall with Google Docs' current abilities, you could do so by downloading the file to your PC.

However, since Office Live Workspace is the web-enabled aspect of Microsoft Office software, integration is key. From within the workspace, you can click "edit" to open the file with the Microsoft Office program. The service also offers an add-in that works with Office XP, 2003, or 2007. The add-in allows you to open and save documents to and from the workspace via the software's File Menu (XP, 2003) or Office menu (2007).

Direct URLs

Both Google Docs and Office Live Workspace offer direct links to allow you to bookmark your workspace or a workspace item (Microsoft) or a file (Google Docs) via a unique URL you can save or share with others.

Folders

Google Docs allows for folders and sub-folders to store your files.

Essentially, Office Live Workspace offers folders, too, if you consider that each "workspace" is basically a folder containing files you want to group together. You can name these anything you want, but sub-folders within them are not supported.

Saving/Exporting

Google Docs allows you to save files to your computer by saving them into (depending on their original format) a Microsoft Office, Open Office, HTML, txt, or even PDF format. You choose the format you want from the menu.

Office Live Workspace of course assumes you want to save the file in Microsoft Office format or whatever other format the file is already in (ex. PDF).

Mobile Access

Google Docs are available from any mobile device, but editing is not available.

Office Live Workspace doesn't provide mobile access, unless you're a member of the Live@edu program. The Live@edu program offers students and alumni 5 GB email inboxes, 5 GB of password-protected online storage space, shared calendars, blogging tools, and access to these services on a mobile phone, all at no cost to the schools or students.

Other Features

Google Docs

• You can create a form in a Google Docs spreadsheet and send it out to anyone with an email address. They can respond directly from the email message or from an automatically generated web page and their responses are automatically added to your spreadsheet.

Office Live Workspace

• Office Live Workspace offers some nice features, such as the ability to comment on files stored on the service.
• Also, an "Activities" feature keeps track of workplace activities with the new activity panel and can send you notifications when changes are made in the workspace.
• Integration with SharedView beta allows Office Live Workspace users to share screens with each other in real-time.

Conclusion

Although it's very close when it comes to basic features of the two services, each stands out in its own way. Google Docs, although limited in its capabilities, offers real-time collaboration. Office Live Workspace, on the other hand, may not have the collaboration features of Google Docs, but the workspaces feature is unique. Plus, you have the capabilities of full-featured Office software available (assuming you own it)!

So, what do you think? Is Office Live Workspace a Google Docs killer? Or just a worthy competitor? Or is Google Docs the big winner?

I first noticed eXpresso when they bought a little start-up called Xcellery that had a neat way to collaborate using Excel. I had used the product and it worked pretty well.

eXpresso was named as one of PC World's 25 Most Innovative Products of the Year for 2007. PC World succinctly summed the product up: "[it] allows Excel users to share their spreadsheets, online or off." eXpresso is different from the web office contenders that you normally hear about on ReadWriteWeb for three reasons:

1. The company originated as an enterprise systems vendor that happened to use collaboration around Excel to deliver solutions. So they arrived at the market by way of solving real world problems as opposed to companies that look at how much money Microsoft makes with Office and saying “I want a piece of that”.
2. They focus on Excel. They don’t try to replace Word, or Powerpoint or Outlook. The Office bundle was based on the logic of the OEM market for PC vendors. There is no reason to have a bundle today. A great spreadsheet can stand alone quite easily.
3. They extend Excel rather than trying to replace it. That works in the real world. Apart from early adopters with relatively simple spreadsheets, people are comfortable with Excel. It works well, it is extensible, it is easy to use. In an enterprise setting the cost of Excel compared to the functionality is a complete non-issue. But Excel’s native collaboration tools are weak and emailing versions around gets to be a real pain when you get to 3 or more contributors; that introduces errors in what can be mission critical applications.

eXpresso say they want to replace Powerpoint as well. I think that’s a mistake. I would urge them to go long and deep on the Excel front. There is little logical connection or synergy between Excel and Powerpoint. The whole Powerpoint paradigm is flawed and will get replaced by Screencast and YouTube type presentations, in my opinion.

Excel really is a unique product. It could be a winner for a long time to come with some simple updating. Microsoft currently seems to want to push integration through SharePoint. Thats not want users want. The IT guys may like that and tell Microsoft thats the right way to go but Microsoft did best when the listened to users more than to IT.

Users don’t care a hoot about SharePoint but if you try taking away Excel you will hear muttering about “over my dead body”. So many start-ups have tried to create a programming environment that ordinary business people can use and nobody has succeeded. Excel delivers on this promise and has for a long time. A novice can be productive in minutes. An expert can find endless ways to add sophistication and capability.

Collaboration really is the missing piece. I used Xcellery first for a simple sales forecasting application where 4 people had to enter forecasts. It worked a treat and there was no set up or re-training required. Millions of people have the same need.

Collaboration is also easy with Excel as there is an obvious unit for the locking - a cell. This is much harder with Word and Powerpoint.

Two real world stories illustrate the power of Excel. One was the CEO of an outsourcing company who said that one of the first things they looked for was a high level of proficiency in Excel. Without that it was, pass. The other was a comment by a vendor selling high end financial trading systems about Excel replacing the browser. The IT guys in the room were aghast with horror at the idea. The users were “yep that’s right”. Excel has handled real time updates pretty well for traders for over a decade; long before Ajax.