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Google Replaces Beta Tag With Price Tag on Apps

Posted on July 7, 2009 ·

Just a short note:

Guess who will welcome GooGreed with a big smile?  Zoho.

Update:  TechCrunch has the clarification from Google:

In experimenting with a number of different landing page layouts, the link to Standard Edition was inadvertently dropped from one of the variations. We are in the process of restoring it and you should see it soon. We have no intention of eliminating Google Apps Standard Edition, and are sorry for the confusion.

Related posts:

Filed Under: Collaboration, Personal Productivity, SaaS · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,
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Ryanair to Make Passengers Stand

Posted on July 6, 2009 ·

The barebones low-cost airline is considering standing-room flights.

Can’t be much worse than sitting on most airlines today, right?

– says Jeff Nolan.   But wait, these flights may be free!   Says Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary:

Why is this any different to what happens on trains where you see thousands of people who cannot get a seat standing in the isles?

There’s still room for further cost-cutting, like shrink-wrapping passengers and piling them up in the cargo area 🙂 Or do like the Flintstones:

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(You can purchase the original here for a lot more than a Ryanair ticket)

Filed Under: Humor · Tagged: , , , ,
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Google Finally Ends the Folder vs. Label War – What’s Next? Find the Answer Here.

Posted on July 1, 2009 ·

Bear with me for this somewhat long post, for I am not only discussing the sweeping changes Gmail made today, but in the end will also tell you what they are going to do next year – or perhaps after that.

Gmail Changes

The Gmail label changes announced today and to be released to accounts slowly (you may not see them yet, I only have them on one account) are ones that I’ve long been waiting for, and that most reviewers seem to underestimate, thinking of them as mere cosmetic or usability changes, i.e. “drag and drop”, “right-side labels retired”..etc.  We can always trust good old Lifehacker to call it what it is: Gmail Gives Labels the Folder Treatment.

Folders vs. Labels

Because they are. Folders, that is. Just very few people realize that.  The Folders vs. Labels debate is older than the tenancy debates we discussed recently, with two deeply religious camps (apologies for the extreme characterization):

Continue reading…

Filed Under: Personal Productivity, SaaS · Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,
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Multi-tenancy, the Holy Grail of SaaS. Do Customers Care?

Posted on June 30, 2009 ·

Two recent posts by Enterprise Social Software  vendors Jive and Atlassian set up a huge debate amongst my fellow Enterprise Irregulars.  Here’s the money-quote from Jive:

It’s not so long ago that it felt embarrassing to say the words "SaaS" and " single-tenant" in the same sentence. For years, it’s been an industry mantra that it’s  simply impossible to have a scalable SaaS business without multi-tenancy.

Both Jive and Atlassian went single-tenant. That’s a red flag with many SaaS purists.  But there’s more then just tenancy. What if customer data stays behind the firewall, while the application is still provided over the web?  Is that still considered SaaS?    Do customers really care about such issues, or do they look for innovation in features and services?

And a bonus: the #1 SaaS icon supposedly delivers on-premise, if the deal is big enough…

Read more here…

Filed Under: Enterprise Software, SaaS · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Break Free of Vista for a $50 Ransom. Catch Win7 Upgrade While You Can.

Posted on June 26, 2009 ·

Fellow Windows Vista victims, there’s light at the end of the tunnel: we may soon set ourselves free and only have to pay a $50 ransom.  I just did. 

The $50 ransom is not a bad deal. Forget the myriad of Win7 SKU’s and whopping prices all the way to $319.99.  I’m calling BS: the real standalone Win7 price is $50 or $100.  Period.

Continue reading…

Filed Under: Business, Software · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Promoting SaaS on eBay?

Posted on June 23, 2009 ·

This listing on eBay is hilarious, almost makes me wonder if it’s a true listing or carefully planted advertising for Google Apps (and SaaS in general).  But the seller appears to be real, has been on eBay for ten years…   Here we go, get Microsoft Office w. Outlook for $75, because:

It’s brand new and never been opened.  My boss bought it right before I moved the whole company over to Google Apps.
We never looked back, but here’s your opportunity to live it up, 90’s style, with this great, retro piece of Microsoft 2007 software.

Read more…

Filed Under: Humor, Personal Productivity, SaaS · Tagged: , , , , , , , ,
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Zoho Office for Sharepoint: Use SaaS, Keep Data Behind the Firewall

Posted on June 23, 2009 ·

One of the major roadblocks to SaaS providers’ entry to the enterprise is  IT and Business concerns about corporate security, thinking of the firewall as the last line of defense. 

Microsoft SharePoint has a very strong position in the Enterprise as the incumbents behind-the-firewall collaboration server, and for years smart Collaboration and Social Software vendors with better functionality, like Atlassian, Socialtext, Jive Software, Newsgator  have been "playing well", adopting their services to SharePoint.

Now Zoho joins, announcing Zoho Office for Microsoft SharePoint, which combines the benefits of a collaborative SaaS Suite with the (perceived or real?) security if keeping data behind the firewall.

Read more…

Filed Under: Collaboration, Enterprise Software, SaaS · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Skype Spam

Posted on June 22, 2009 ·

The last place I expect to receive spam is on Skype, and so far it has remained clean, I assume due to my privacy settings:

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So how on earth could this have popped up on my screen:

[12:05:42 PM] Zora Giannoni: hi! i’m briannahh from http://www.slutsdating.com are we still on for saturday?

No, Zora, or Briannah or whoever you are: we’re not on.   Anyone with similar experience? Are we seeing major trouble with Skype?

Filed Under: Software · Tagged: , , ,
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Netbooks Resurfaces from Hibernation as WorkingPoint: SaaS for SMB with Nicer UI but Much Less Functionality

Posted on June 17, 2009 ·

I’ve previously covered Netbooks, provider of an Integrated SaaS Business Suite for Very Small Businesses.

The company had an affordable On-Demand integrated business management solution for the   VSB – very small businesses, the “S” in SMB / SME: typically companies with less then 25 employees, sometimes only 3-5, and, most importantly, without professional IT support, in which case Software as a Service is a life-saver.

NetBooks tried to cover a complete business cycle, from opportunity through sales, manufacturing, inventory / warehouse management, shipping, billing, accounting – some with more success then others.   The process logic, the flow between various functional areas was excellent, but it was rendered almost unusable by a horrible UI. And it didn’t scale… so the company disappeared for a long year, completely re-building their code base.

Read on …

Filed Under: SaaS, Software, Startups · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Opera Unite Turns Your Computer into a Web Server. But Will You Want It?

Posted on June 16, 2009 ·

The little browser that could … was how the Opera browser was often referred to around 1996-98.  The best browser packed with innovative features that Internet Explorer and Firefox were forced to copy: tabbed browsing, popup-blockers, saved sessions, zooming, mouse gestures to name a few.  But it never really took off,  continuing to hover around 2% market-share forever.

Today Opera proves again they are innovators: they claim to “reinvent the web” with the launch of Opera Unite.

Read more…

Filed Under: Software, Technology · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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