Zoho Discussions launches as FriendFeed-forum hybrid to help groups track online conversations
After somewhat of a dry spell, Zoho has finally launched a new product: Zoho Discussions. Designed for companies and groups to carry on internal, time-lapse conversations, appears to be a combination of FriendFeed and traditional internet forums.
The simple interface lists all the topics on a particular forum, along with the name of the user that has added to the thread most recently and when. The topics are split among four main categories: Discussion, question, idea… Continue Reading
Web tools leave the cloud: Zoho available for SharePoint
As online office software tries to move into big corporations, it’s starting to work more closely with entrenched solutions — which often means technology built by Microsoft. In the latest example, Zoho just announced plans to offer its collaboration services as an add-on for SharePoint, Microsoft’s server and software for collaboration and document management.
Basically, that means you can use Zoho Office as the interface for collaborative editing of documents, while the documents themselves sit safely… Continue Reading
Roundup: 18 Android phones coming this year, MySpace hoping for innovation, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Google: Expect 18 Android phones by the end of the year — That number could be as high as 20, says Andy Rubin, senior director for mobile platforms.
News Corp. and MySpace execs say MySpace needs to innovate — During an interview at the All Things Digital conference (owned by News Corp., incidentally), MySpace chief executive Owen Van Natta also discussed concerns that the site might lose its lucrative search deal with Google, saying the… Continue Reading
Add Zoho to other sites with Zoho Gadgets
Zoho provides useful and free Web applications for productivity and business, just like Google does. But Zoho has done a particularly impressive job integrating all these applications together. Now it’s integrating those apps with non-Zoho websites, in the form of “gadgets” that can be added to services like Gmail and Facebook.
These gadgets, or little windows that sit on your homepage, can keep updated on the data contained in your Zoho applications (Zoho Docs, Zoho Mail,… Continue Reading
Zoho Chat opens to Google, AIM, and more
Zoho, a company offering a wide range of low-cost web applications for productivity and business, is launching version 2.0 of its instant messaging client, Zoho Chat. The biggest change is both simple and absolutely crucial — Zoho Chat now allows users to log in to other instant messaging programs, such as Yahoo, Google, MSN, and AIM.
Now it’s hard to get too worked up about a instant messaging tool, especially when there are many other, more… Continue Reading
DEMO: How new technology makes us more productive
More companies are catching on to the ways that technologies like the Internet, smartphones, and social networking can help people work with others and get more done.
These ideas become even more compelling in the current economic climate, when it’s a truism that everyone needs to prove they’re productive. That, or they’ll lose their job.
That’s why we’re making “Productivity 2.0″ (a term which sounds a bit gimmicky, but which serves as a convenient shorthand for the… Continue Reading
Don’t despair, Google Notebook users: Import to Zoho
When Google announced it has stopped active development on Notebook, the tool for saving ideas and web pages, there were cries of dismay from a corner of the web. A small corner, but still — users created an online petition to save Notebook (as pointed out by Mashable), which has 881 total signatures. Notebook isn’t officially disappearing, at least not yet, and Google already offers ways to export your information into Google Docs or HTML… Continue Reading
Who did Apple hurt with its Macworld announcements?
[Disclosure: The author previously worked at Flickr, one of the companies mentioned in this story.]
In yesterday’s keynote address at Macworld, Apple unveiled a series of software product upgrades that will potentially encroach on the territory of a handful of startups and larger companies. Should you be worried?
What iPhoto might maim
For starters, one of the big announcements revolved around changes to iPhoto, which, sometime this month, will add people- and geo-tagging functionality. The people tagging works… Continue Reading
Grab data from Zoho’s software with Zoho CloudSQL
Business software maker Zoho announced today that it’s making it easier to send and retrieve data from its web applications through a new technology called Zoho CloudSQL.
Basically, Zoho CloudSQL allows customers to interact with the data in their Zoho applications using commands in the well-known database language SQL (structured query language). Previously, the only way for third-party applications to interact with Zoho was through the commands allowed in Zoho’s web application programming interfaces (APIs). So… Continue Reading
Roundup: Intel cuts estimates, iPhone games taking off and more
Here’s the latest action:
Intel cuts fourth quarter estimates — The chip maker says sales could fall by as much as 19 percent, and things look similarly bleak for chip companies Applied Materials and National Semiconductor.
IPhone takes on Nintendo and Sony in portable gaming — Among other things, the iPhone tempts developers with lowered distribution costs. There are almost 2,000 games already available in Apple’s App Store.
Google joins smart grid group — The group, called the Demand Response and… Continue Reading
Roundup: FCC opens airwaves, Google slows hiring and more
Here’s the latest action (aside from a certain election):
FCC agrees to open up the airwaves — A section of the radio spectrum known as white space has been set aside for public use, a move pushed for by tech companies like Google and Microsoft.
Google slows hiring — CNBC reported that Google has implemented an unofficial hiring freeze, but the search giant denies the rumor, saying that it has merely slowed down.
Dell making more cutbacks — The computer maker… Continue Reading
Zoho uses Google Gears to go offline — what about Gmail?
There’s a lot to like about Zoho Mail, the next step in Zoho’s rapid roll-out of a broad range of business applications . But for a non-Zoho user, there’s one thing that’s kind of galling: You can access your Zoho Mail through integration with browser extension Google Gears. It’s a smart, useful feature, and that only makes it more annoying that Google hasn’t provided similar offline functionality for Gmail.
Back in July, there were rumors that… Continue Reading
Business software company Zoho opens application marketplace
Zoho is expanding beyond its broad range of business applications today with the launch of the Zoho Marketplace, where developers can sell the apps they build using Zoho’s Creator tool. The launch, which was announced last week, is a sign that Zoho is serious about enlisting developer support — you have a lot more incentive to build an app if there’s a centralized location where you can sell it.
The obvious rival is Salesforce.com’s AppExchange, which… Continue Reading
Zoho Docs ties documents together
Zoho continues to roll out its ever growing lineup of inexpensive (indeed, mostly free) online office software. Today’s addition is Zoho Docs, an application that allows you to access the text documents, spreadsheets and presentations created in Zoho Writer, Sheet and Show, respectively, through a single application.
To be honest, my first thought on hearing the news was, “Holy crap, you couldn’t do that already?” So this is hardly an amazing breakthrough. It is an important… Continue Reading
Zoho adds document sharing to its growing lineup
Zoho, a company that offers a growing variety of cheap and free online office applications, just launched Zoho Share, a service for sharing documents on the web or within your company.
Now, all documents, presentations, spreadsheets and PDFs created using Zoho Apps can be viewed as an embeddable file, similar to Scribd or Docstoc. Those documents can be shared publicly, or just internally, as with Microsoft’s Sharepoint. (Which is why Zoho calls the service “Sharepoint meets… Continue Reading
Roundup: Apple remote app deactivation, the $1,000 app vanishes, Zoho hits 1 million users and more
Here’s the latest action:
Apple can deactivate iPhone apps remotely? — The device can apparently phone home (to Apple), check your applications against a list of unauthorized ones and deactivate them remotely. iPhone Atlas found a URL that appears to contain the banned app list. If this is true, it’s troubling to say the least from a personal privacy perspective.
I Am Rich vanishes from the App Store — Speaking of Apple removing iPhone apps, it has removed what… Continue Reading
Zoho ups visibility in online app market by opening up to Google, Yahoo
It just got a little more tempting to use startup Zoho’s suite of online applications — users can now log in using their Google and Yahoo accounts.
This is a smart move, because it lets users try out Zoho’s products (which cover the gamut of office and business applications) without having to create yet another online account. Even better, this means Zoho customers don’t have to worry that the documents they make using Zoho Creator and… Continue Reading
Zoho releases enterprise-grade CRM
There are already numerous customer relationship management software offerings out there that target large corporations. So you’d think it was game over as far as new CRM entrants was concerned.
But start-up Zoho has launched an “enterprise edition” of its low-cost CRM products, in yet another move by an upstart to lower the cost of software by offering it over the Web.
Zoho’s move comes just a few days after CRM company Salesforce announced it will be… Continue Reading
Zoho’s business offerings still growing with online invoice tool
Zoho has added another product to its constantly growing suite of online office and business applications — Zoho Invoice, which allows you to create and track invoices online.
Zoho evangelist Raju Vegesna outlines the product’s new features here. It’s pretty straightforward: You add customers, products or services and a recurring payment schedule if necessary. Then you can print it, email it or export it as a PDF (see screenshot below). Zoho Invoice also supports billing in… Continue Reading
Zoho launches HR app for smaller companies
Zoho, a company that claims to offer a wider range of productivity and business applications than anyone, has launched a human resources app called Zoho People. Unlike most HR apps, Zoho People is aimed at relatively small companies, says Zoho evangelist Raju Vegesna — in other words, companies that have more than 50 employees but aren’t too much larger than Zoho, which has a staff of around 200.
That small-company focus is most evident in Zoho… Continue Reading