Microsoft, Adobe chase Google online

Both Microsoft and Adobe made announcements on Monday that shows they are starting to take online services seriously. Adobe announced the purchase of Virtual Ubiquity, developer of the web word processor Buzzword, and launched a file-sharing service called Share. Microsoft on the other hand announced a web component for the Office suite of programs that will allow users to store, share and comment on documents. According to this CBC article "Microsoft Office Live Workspace, which launched as a test version on Monday, doesn't actually let users create new files from scratch online, but it is a step by the company towards bringing its suite of desktop applications to the web." Google has the lead but don't expect either of these giants to go down without a fight... competition is healthy!

Google addresses security concerns of hosted applications

Google has been busy over the last few years developing and acquiring technology that would end up being hosted applications such as Docs and Spreadsheets, Calendar, Talk and Gmail. While many individuals and small businesses have embraced the hosted concept, big business is a harder sell with security being the major concern. Google has made a large stride towards easing these concerns with news today that they are acquiring Postini, "a global leader in on-demand communications security and compliance solutions". The deal worth $625 million will likely get done in the 3rd quarter of this year, according to the news release. While there are obvious gains for Google, they promise to "continue to support Postini customers and invest in Postini products."

Google docs, spreadsheets, and folders

Google has updated it's online Docs and Spreadsheets application putting a fresh face on it, and adding new functionality. The updates allow for better search, sorting by collaborator, and notably a change from tabs to folders. The news was announced on Wednesday in this release, two days prior to foldera announcing it's release of the public beta of their version 3.0 offering. I really like these applications and think they are a great way to collaborate on small projects. The big question is how much do you trust your really important stuff to someone else? When you are talking about holiday pictures or video of your kids on the trampoline that's one thing but your financial projections, or business proposal are another (not that family photos are unimportant, I keep all kinds of copies in many different forms but that's another blog post). I don't see big business moving towards these hosted applications anytime soon, but for us little guys, and for volunteer organizations or sports leagues/teams, these apps can save a lot of money and provide a nice way to work remotely on projects.