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Forbes Reviews AJAX Apps for Small Businesses
prostoalex writes "Forbes magazine evaluates the variety of AJAX-powered Internet-based applications and their suitability for small businesses. The office suite replacements Forbes magazine chose are Google-centric: Google Calendar, Spreadsheets, Notebook and Gmail are the winners of their respective categories. Pageflakes and YouOS are tied for the leader's spot in 'Webtops' category."
"But don't throw away your desktop applications just yet. As a general rule, Ajax sites simply aren't as powerful or as useful as their desktop counterparts. Spreadsheet jockeys, for example, will want to stick with Excel for the foreseeable future."
I also enjoy how many of the "recommended" apps are only available for use on outside servers, so no company-confidential data should ever be placed on them.
For more information, click here.
1. Noone can "win" because the true beauty of web applications is you have most all the code on the client side, for anyone to copy freely. So this is really a matter of who has a new feature this week, that everyone else will also have next week. That's why it rocks.
2. Security, as in none of, nuff said.
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
What, no mention of Zimbra or Roundcube (although that's beta)? At least those can be run locally.
Well google sure doesn't have much competition from msn or yahoo, especially when it comes to Gmail. Hotmail and Yahoo are huge spam dumpsters, I can't go two minutes without getting an offer for cheap pills and awesome mortage rates. Not, too sure about your comment on online security, things are more secure than you think it's not like any old arsebag can just jump into these servers and have free reign over the place.
Unless I can host the application on my internal server, it makes no sense to store data on external servers that I have no control over. Besides, if I'm going to cook the books, I want a search warrant for my place instead of a warrant telling the application provider to hand over the data.
Thanks for clicking.....
ThinkFree Office wasn't even mentioned?
Is why OpenOffice is rarely mentioned when talking about free alternatives to MS Office. OpenOffice if free to download and I have never found it wanting when compared with MS Office. Is it just not "cool" enough when compared to snazzy AJAX apps?
I don't know who ripped off who, but both sites seem to be the same thing....
pageflakes == live.com
The MS Office app that is in dire need of replacement, and the app that seems most obvious to run on the web is PowerPoint. Why not build your presentation on the web and instantly share it will all of your participants, rather than having to jump through PowerPoint's terrible web publishing procedures?
So why doesn't the article mention presentation tools, and why have none of the big players (Google, Yahoo!) put out a web2.0 presentation application yet?
I know there are a many options out there -- Zoho Show, Thumbstack, S5, Empressr, Wimpypoint, PmWiki SlideShow, TiddlyWiki SlideShow, Slidy, OperaShow, TeamSlide, Carbonmade.
I don't have the time to compare them and sort them all out. Where is the big article reviewing and comparing these badly-needed tools? And why aren't the big web guys giving this essential application any attention?
I don't usually wear a tin-foil hat and I believe that most conspiracy theories are bullshit. That being said, does anyone else wonder what would happen if Google, as a publicly traded company, decided to set aside their "Don't be evil" values? The primary fiduciary duty of the leaders of a company are not to be "not evil", they are to create wealth for the shareholders. Right now it is to Google's advantage to be good just as it is to ExxonMobil's advantage to be bad, because both actions are creating wealth for the shareholders of each company. What if Google's business model doesn't sustain the profits that the shareholders expect?
Don't get me wrong: I love using Google. I think the Internet is a better place because of them. I'm just starting to worry that maybe we are depending too much on a company that, despite the best efforts and intentions of its founders, may not be able to maintain its presently outstanding values.
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords
Please tell me "Webtop" isn't a word now. I've almost gotten to the point where I can hear "Webinar" without audibly gagging.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
What the hell would Forbes know about AJAX. I've not RTFA but would not be the least surprised if they confused it with a cleaning powder.
My karma is not a Chameleon.
Here is the original:
i cle.jhtml?articleID=192203311&pgno=1
_ the_leader_in_ajax_appl.html?CMP=OTC-TY3388567169& ATT=Google+is+not+the+leader+in+Ajax+applications
http://www.informationweek.com/management/showArt
and here is O'Reilly's columnist response:
http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2006/08/who_is
RIGHT(tm). Their javascript in the article doesn't even work to View Images.
Old portals had working back buttons.
Pageflakes sucks because of the oh-so-clever ajax naviagation.
No better than building the whole thing in flash or a java applet.
"If they have both, tell them we use Linux. And if they have that, tell them the computers are down." -Dave Chapelle
Poster has stated Powerpoint is an "essential application." The Slashdot core has been breached. Make for the exits. The marketing droids have entered the premises! We're DOOMED.
Maybe businessmen are correct - perhaps IT is no longer important. Will that remain so? My suspicion is "yes".
If not, then when will IT recover?
OK, I've had a look at some of these Google web apps, and they look great, and probably will, in short time, meet the claim of doing what most users need most of the time.
Hwever, every place I've ever worked in has used some feature of MS Office, or the MS Windows OS, which isn't likely to see it's way into Web 2.0 for a long time. eg. large documents, with multiple views (outline, page layout, etc...), databases with pivot tables, a COM based plugin, a Windows only accounting package. However, I work in high tech industry, which may be aypical.
So, I ask - are there any businesses which *only* use basic OS and web functionality for everything?
If the answer is "no", then I would conclude that most everyone is going to keep paying the MS Tax to keep the feature or two which they need, and seeing as they're already paying for it, they might as well use the the rest of MS Windows and Office. (which saves admin and training costs)
I'm a software visionary. I don't code.
The Google Calendar doesn't let you embed your event calendar in your own website. I like the WebPasties Calendar better because I can embed it in my own website and use colors for the calendar that complement my site's color scheme.
"The primary fiduciary duty of the leaders of a company are not to be "not evil", they are to create wealth for the shareholders."
*sigh* One day slashdot will get it right. *crosses fingers*
Anyway you do realize that there's a raft of laws that a company has to obey? Not just "fudiciary responsability". Right?
Forbes is the lowest of the low. Like everybody else, they pick something that's "hot" and write articles about it, but unlike everybody else they do not consider expertise to be an important part of their job.
A friend of mine from college called me around 2002 and asked me what Linux was because Forbes' tech section writers were supposed to mention Linux in their articles if at all possible.
Now AJAX is hot, and they need to tell their idiotic PHB readers about the "hot" new thing without rocking the boat too much. Do I understand correctly that this is geared towards small businesses, but they aren't mentioning Joyent? Joyent needs to get their PR together.
Anyway, Forbes articles are not news. Please do not force me to address this again.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
I just opened both Ajax desktop things in the summary, and Firefox not only took over all my RAM, it actually connected to Best Buy and used my Visa number to order another two sticks of Corsair.
Their "tops" -- PageFlakes and YouOS -- are just like any other portal site. I can understand the appeal of replacing desktop apps, to a point, but I really, really don't see the point of replacing functionality that's already there in a web browser.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
No mention of @Mail which offers Ajax email, and is a download product rather then online service like the ones listed in the Forbes article. I think the Forbes article is pretty light/fluffy, but it is for their target audience anyway ....
there is a need for a distributed information system/operating environment.
All the solutions so far are ineffective solutions to the same problem:
-terminal services
-remote login
-the X-window system
-www/html/http
I wonder when the big companies will realize this; it is a gold mine, and whoever gets there first will have the others cornered.
The best part about AJAX and the hype is that MS "invented" it or at least was the first to have support for it way back in 1999; but it wasn't until 5 years later that somebody came up with a fancy name for it and google started using it that the real hype began.
"there is a need for a distributed information system/operating environment."
What does Ajax do that a Java application couldn't do better?
davecb5620@gmail.com
Personally I cant think of a better place to store our CRM data than Salesforce.com
Think about it, how manay security specialists do I have on staff securing my data? (less than 0 so I'm sure SF has more).
How many staff do I have making sure our network is up and accessible (1 but I'm sure SF has more).
As for what happens if they shut their doors, well thats an educated risk I'm prepared to take.
Cheers,
Dean