Comments on: It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane…

By: Wetpaint Attracts More Funding| Zoli’s Blog

Wetpaint Attracts More Funding| Zoli’s Blog — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:14:58 +0000

[...] It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane… [via Zemanta] [...]

By: More on Africa and what mashups can be used for. « Vendorprisey

More on Africa and what mashups can be used for. « Vendorprisey — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:47:22 +0000

[...] him from a different context altogether, Jeff Nolan had this to say.. Check out this snapshot of Techmeme today. As is typically the case, Google [...]

By: Chris Yeh

Chris Yeh — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 08:41:26 +0000

I think it’s hilarious and illustrative how little people seem to know about SharePoint. Here is one of the foundational components of Microsoft’s enterprise stack, a $1 billion product (if MSFT can be believed…I wonder how they arrived at that figure), broadly deployed in the enterprise, and people are comparing it to a very bare-bones wiki service.

I’m biased, since in my work for PBwiki, one of my jobs is figuring out how we can sell against, or more likely, co-exist with SharePoint. Nonetheless, I can’t help but feel that this is one case where Google may have wrong-footed itself.

While declaring Google Sites to be a “Sharepoint killer” might pass muster with those unfamiliar with the enterprise, I doubt it will win Google much love from IT decisionmakers.

Heck, if Google Sites comes up with a potential PBwiki customer, I’ll just tell the salespeople to point ‘em to Dan Farber’s post:
http://www.news.com/8301-13953_3-9882854-80.html?tag=nefd.top

Hard to believe that folks will want to use a product where they have to grant Google a “perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and nonexclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display, and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services”.

By: Andrew Holt

Andrew Holt — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:59:20 +0000

I got the impression most blogs were picking up on the statement by Google’s Management Director of Enterprise Matthew Glotzbach that Apps is a Sharepoint killer, and spread the word without doing any analysis of the statement. In fact, a lot of business-oriented applications get covered in the blogosphere from a techie POV, when they really apply more to strategic thinking.

Even if Google Apps had all the integrated features and use controls of Sharepoint, it’s not a “Sharepoint killer” until it’s marketed and packaged as an enterprise-class solution, not a free-to-paid tool for whoever might stumble upon it.

By: Act 2: Buyer’s Remorse | Venture Chronicles

Act 2: Buyer’s Remorse | Venture Chronicles — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:18:48 +0000

[...] on February 29, 2008Filed Under Blogs | Yesterday I wrote about the Techmeme blogger reaction to Google Sites, basically critical of it because it’s a pattern that is all too familiar: Google comes out [...]

By: John Westra

John Westra — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:05:16 +0000

New Google Sites Application Misses Mark

After waiting expectantly for the release of Google Sites, the success to Jotspot, for more than a year, I must confess I’m pretty disappointed in the result. The user interface is clunky and non-intuitive and offers little new in the way of collaborative tools, other than Joomla-esq shared web page editing.

What happened? Google already has a terrific widget enabled web page creation tool. It’s called Blogger! Why didn’t they use that technology to make dropping various functional elements onto a page easy?

The ability to quickly create an Intranet/Xtranet of four to twenty pages is what most of my SMB clients are looking for. Doing this with SharePoint has always been too developer and infrastructure intensive, leaving us to recommend products like WebOffice (formerly Intranets.com) and Blue Tie as web-based collaboration tools.

BlueTie in unique in that it offers unique ways for partners to monetize the solution and generate a unique ongoing revenue stream. In fact, BlueTie was recently recognized as an OnMedia Top 100 Winner.

Google has missed the mark badly with its Google Sites application. It’s unfortunate, because it takes the pressure off Microsoft to improve SharePoint’s ease of use and Cisco to lower the cost of WebOffice.

Until Google releases a Google Sites application that is significantly easier to use and functional, I will continue to recommend WebOffice, Blue Tie or our own TeamPro application as a Intranet/Xtranet solution.

By: thomas

thomas — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:12:51 +0000

Jeff,
indeed, loved the ear image. I picked up on this and used it in a rather different context.
http://theotherthomasotter.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/more-on-africa-and-what-mashups-can-be-used-for/

One day, someone will make trackbacks consistent. I think we will both be old by then.

By: Martin Edic

Martin Edic — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:30:33 +0000

As one of that tiny group who uses Google Apps (just docs at this point) and as a former marketing manager at a collaboration software company (BlueTie) I know that getting people to understand anything about collaboration software is practically impossible. I’m talking about regular business owners, not techies. Even in the tech world the word means too many things. But when I share a Google doc with a client or partner they suddenly get it, probably because it lands in their inbox and they need it. I think both Google and MS suffer from having too many tech geeks and not enough regular business types in their organizations determining strategy. If you show someone how collaboration works, in their world, and make it really really easy then it will spread. Releasing products like this Jotspot upgrade won’t work until they understand a lot more about marketing and do a better job explaining what it is. Even very savvy media writers don’t seem to know how to describe it. Get your message together before you release guys. And keep it dead simple.

By: JotSpot Born Again as Google Sites, the Wiki-less Wiki.| Zoli’s Blog

JotSpot Born Again as Google Sites, the Wiki-less Wiki.| Zoli’s Blog — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:30:06 +0000

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