I wonder how long the rampant marketing hype over cloud-related stuff will last? Now, let's be clear, that's not to say I don't think there's validity in the concept of cloud services; not at all ... it's just that many vendors choose to conflate whatever they're selling with the word "cloud" just because it's the "meme du jour," which does nothing but make the term "cloud" less useful.
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Google Docs
Google gives Android users a Docs app, but no offline access yet
Offline access coming later this year for PC users, but not for Android
Submitted by Jon Brodkin on Wed, 04/27/11 - 12:37pm.
Google released an official Google Docs app for Android devices today, and while the app is better than the Docs website for mobile browsers it does not provide the long-awaited offline access and editing. Read more
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Microsoft blasts Google Docs compatibility with Word
What we really need is seamless integration between Word and Docs
Submitted by Jon Brodkin on Fri, 04/22/11 - 1:18pm.
If there's one major disadvantage Google has in the documents war against Microsoft, it's that Microsoft products are so widely used that Google has to offer near-perfect compatibility with Microsoft Word when it comes to maintaining the format of documents moved from Word to Docs. Read more
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Mark's rating: 
Gladinet Cloud Desktop, a real cloud product
By Mark Gibbs on Fri, 03/18/2011 - 6:00am.
Mark's rating:
Gladinet brings cloud storage to the desktop
By Mark Gibbs on Wed, 04/07/2010 - 12:00am.
Doing stuff "in the cloud" is, as the French would say, "au courant", or as we might say, "groovy." But cloud services from your desktop aren't always so easy because there's usually some kind of speed bump that will slow you down and make your life more complicated.
This speed bump will most often be in the form of having to use a Web interface which, while these work fairly well for managing processes and deploying services, aren't so great for file operations (upload, download, copy, move and delete).
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Google's Loss in China is Microsoft's Gain
Google's game of chicken with the Chinese government could be a windfall for Microsoft.
Submitted by Mitchell Ashley on Fri, 01/15/10 - 12:48pm.
Big topic this week… Google retaliates against China's government attacks on Google's intellectual property and human rights activists email accounts. Ballmer say's we'll stay and obey Chinese laws. There's an old saying; "don't get in front of someone trying to commit suicide" and I would say that's exactly what we have in this case. Read more
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Microsoft Outpaces Google with Single Sign-On For Linked Accounts
More more logging out and back in again... at least for Windows Live accounts.
Submitted by Mitchell Ashley on Fri, 01/08/10 - 2:20am.
One Google account, one Windows Live account. That's my ideal goal. One of my promises to myself over the holidays was to clean up and consolidate various online accounts I've set up on Google and Windows Live over time. I'm never been that sure whether I should have a different account for personal vs. companies vs. clients. Maybe I've made more of a big deal about keeping some things separate than I should but I don't always want to mix those things into one account if they can't later be separated out. Read more
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Google Chrome OS - Web Optimized Browser On Steriods
Google's all in bet is that the cloud plus a browser will kill off Microsoft
Submitted by Mitchell Ashley on Mon, 11/23/09 - 12:55pm.
Google's laying it all out on the table with Chrome OS. My editor posted an excellent article about Chrome OS and we're already expecting a Chrome OS update from Google. Despite the distraction of a bank robbery and shooting in our city last week, I managed to dig my paws into Chrome OS to try and really understand what Google's up to. Read more
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Microsoft Is Perfect Example Why Executive Pay Is Broken
Microsoft lays off more employees while executives still rake in the dough.
Submitted by Mitchell Ashley on Fri, 11/06/09 - 8:34am.
Text message this morning from CNN: Unemployment hit 10.2% in October. Microsoft announced earlier this week another 800 employee layoffs to the 5,000 previously announced employee layoffs. If you look at Microsoft's financials you see why, a 14% revenue and 18% net income drop for the last reported quarter, on top of disappointing prior quarters. Read more
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Podcast: Office Web Apps – Microsoft’s Nail in Google Apps' Coffin?
There's a lot more to Office Web Apps than just free versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
Submitted by Mitchell Ashley on Thu, 10/08/09 - 3:28am.
Can Office Web Apps stave off customer migration to Google Docs? Google wants to take down Microsoft and Google Docs strikes at the very heart of Microsoft's application suite, Microsoft Office. Many users of Google Docs switched because of its sharing and collaboration features or they were looking for a low cost ($50/user/year) web-based alternative to Microsoft Office. Microsoft's response to Google Apps is Office Web Apps, free web-based online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Read more
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Your Google Docs will soon appear in public search results
Docs linked to crawlable pages are set to be crawled themselves next week.
Submitted by Source Seeker on Mon, 09/21/09 - 4:57pm.
Google quietly announced last week that it would soon be crawling and including Google Docs in its public search results. All published documents that are linked to from a crawled Web site (or are published with the embeddable option selected) will appear in the search results of Google and other search engines. The change is set to take place next week. Read more
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Lose the beta crutch, Google, win the enterprise
Submitted by Source Seeker on Thu, 05/21/09 - 3:31pm.Nearly half of all Google products were still in beta at the end of 2008--including 5-year-old Gmail--leading many to wonder what exactly "beta" means to Google. While keeping the beta tag may seem to provide Google with a pass on some failures and glitches, it doesn't do much to warm it to the hearts of enterprise IT. Read more
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More Docs security holes, more hand-waving by Google
Submitted by Source Seeker on Fri, 03/27/09 - 11:45am.It's as if Google's playing into the Electronic Privacy Information Center's hands. EPIC just urged the FTC to investigate Google and its cloud-based Docs program, charging that Google's document security is not only inadequate, but also deceptive. And almost as if on cue, three new security holes have been found in Google Docs. Read more
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Google Docs bug bolsters cloud naysayers
Submitted by Source Seeker on Mon, 03/09/09 - 9:08am.Google quickly fixed a bug within Google Docs and Spreadsheets this weekend that resulted in users unintentionally sharing documents and spreadsheets, but the damage was already done. It's one thing to have user error lead to security issues, but quite another to find that the culprit is a Google technical glitch. Read more
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Microsoft promises ODF support in Office 2007 SP2, kinda sorta
Submitted by Microsoft Subnet on Thu, 12/18/08 - 5:19pm.
Earlier this week, Microsoft released technical documents describing how it plans to implement support of the Open Document Format (ODF) within Office 2007 Service Pack 2, expected to ship in 2009. Read more
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When it comes to Google Docs, there are no good numbers
Submitted by Source Seeker on Mon, 11/17/08 - 10:08am.No matter which set of numbers you believe, Google Docs has a lot of market share ground to gain, not only against Microsoft Office but also OpenOffice.org's free office suite. Read more
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Another big enterprise win for Google Apps
Submitted by Microsoft Subnet on Fri, 10/10/08 - 3:10pm.Much is said about how Google is attacking Microsoft in its cash-cow, Office applications. But another side to the same story is that some 97% of Google's revenue comes from ads and its stock has dropped about 50% so far this year, reports Bloomberg.com. Investors realize that the search giant needs to diversify if it is to continue on its meteoric rise in power. Read more
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5 Reasons Google Loves Perpetual Betas
Submitted by Mitchell Ashley on Thu, 09/25/08 - 4:48am.Google's Gmail has been in beta for four years. Software beta testing usually only lasts a few months, six at the most, for more normal software companies. So why does Google throw software out there and leave it in a perpetual beta state? That's the question Paul McNamara asks in his blog post. Pingdom says that 22 of Google's 49 products (45%) are in beta. Most normal engineering and product managers would have been fired long ago if they couldn't get their products out of beta and into a GA (general availability) state, but we all know Google doesn't think this way when it comes to releasing software. Matter of fact, Google's approach has influenced even Microsoft's release approach. Live Mesh, Office Live Workspace and many other Microsoft online software have remained in beta for lengthy periods.
So why does Google release software this way? Here's my serious, and somewhat tongue-in-cheek, reasons Google does open ended software betas.
1. Low Expectations. Beta software brings lower user expectations. They're more tolerant of bugs, missing features, poor design, etc., when users get software for free and it doesn't have a detrimental impact to their productivity or other software applications. It's also easy to catch Microsoft sleeping, only to wake up to find millions of Google software users who've switched to a new alternative. At the same time Google's putting beta stuff out their, Microsoft's saddled with everything entailed in shipped GA software. Google can be much more nibble with this new software model than traditional shrink-wrapped software. Read more
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No Apps, just Google search for iPhone 3G
Submitted by Source Seeker on Fri, 07/11/08 - 2:30pm.Google offered a mobile search app via Apple's new iPhone app store that's received fairly good reviews, but some bloggers are wondering where the real Google Apps are.
While Google offers browser-based Google Apps, such as Google Docs and Gmail, for use on the iPhone, it hasn't gone the path of true native 3G iPhone apps. As blogger Eric Zeman says: Read more
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Google Apps outage leaves users scrambling
Submitted by Source Seeker on Wed, 07/09/08 - 12:59pm.Worldwide users of Google Docs and Spreadsheets experienced almost an hour-long outage yesterday, further underscoring the need for quick backup plans when dealing with cloud-based applications (see Cloud computing's dark side examined). Read more
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Seeding the cloud
Submitted by Source Seeker on Wed, 07/02/08 - 5:39pm.One of the biggest problems with Google Apps is that true enterprise users are few and far between. So how do you change that? By taking a page from Microsoft's playbook--at least that's how Google Watch's Clint Boulton sees it. Read more
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