Despite many signs pointing to a release of Google's presentation service at last week's Office 2.0 Conference (coverage), the only thing we got were some new tweaks to Docs and Spreadsheets that went largely under the radar. This morning, The Inquirer is claiming that things are stirring in the depths of Google's Mountain View headquarters, and the app is set to launch "any day now." They're also claiming that the app will be integrating technology from both of Google's slide show and presentation acquisitions Tonic Systems and Zenter, which the company bought up in April and June respectively.
Despite mention of a presentation app, there's still largely nothing that's been said about a Wiki app joining the party, besides the acquisition of Jotspot late last year, which hasn't come to fruition amidst the rest of Google's services. On a related note, no matter what, we're getting something new from the company next week where Google is set to present something at the TechCrunch40 conference.
Several signs are pointing to the imminent launch of Google Wiki and the company's long-awaited presentation service at this week's Office 2.0 conference in San Francisco.
The biggest indicators are history and vague comments by Google officials. Last year's Office 2.0 brought the launch of Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and Jonathan Rochelle, the product manager for Google Spreadsheets, will also be at hand for the opening panel at the conference kickoff on Thursday. Between this, an almost-demo by Google's CEO Eric Schmidt of the presentation application, as well as a post on the Official Google Blog that presentations would be making their way to everyone "this summer," and we should be seeing something new as early as Thursday.
The new wiki application from Google would fill out its online office suite, and give Google Apps a little more appeal for small- and mid-size business customers who want a consolidated wiki solution. The launch would also coincide with the anniversary of Google's acquisition of wiki service JotSpot (review) last October. Considering JotSpot served up multiple tiers of service to serve casual to business users, the model could follow suit with Google's four flavors of Google Apps, including their business and enterprise solutions.
However, the trail of clues about how these services will tie into Google's existing online office environment is thin. There have been few signs of Google's presentation service making an early appearance since the acquisition of Zenter and Tonic Systems a few months ago. From the outside, the clearest indicator has been the move of Jotspot's user help and forums services over to Google's own native support network.
Stay tuned.
Google has just announced its acquisition of Zenter, a small company that makes software for creating online slideshows--a much rumored, and fully confirmed product Google's CEO Eric Schmidt officially announced a few months ago at the Web 2.0 Expo.
Zenter joins Tonic Systems, another presentation-creation service Google picked up back in April.
Zenter first unveiled its service in mid-March and has since stayed fairly quiet. The service lets users import Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, as well as grab bits of content from all over the Web for making presentations that can be viewed and shared in the Web browser. Users can also create their own live broadcasts, similar to many of the Web-based PowerPoint competitors that have popped up in the last few years.
While Google hasn't announced a timeline of when we can expect to see the official presentation application, as of last week, users of Google's Gmail service have been able to open attached PowerPoint files inside their message windows without having the software installed.
As I suspected, there were interesting Web 2.0 finds in the audience at the Stirr event. Many of these online products are still being built, but they're interesting to experiment with:
- Allth.at: Lets you set up custom, persistent searches. In other words, you can tell it which sites to search (Google, eBay, Technorati, etc.), and which sites to exclude. You can also have the system alert you when there are new results in your searches. Somewhat redundant for those of us who use RSS agents (like Google's) to track keywords on the Web, but has the advantage of working with more than just feeds.
- Collanos: Online workspace for teams. Peer to peer. Shades of Groove. Requires a download, but looks conceptually simple, which is something one cannot say about all the workspace products out there.
- EmbraceMobile: Enables polling and market research via mobile phones. Also can be location-based, so if you're signed up for the service, and you walk into a particular store, you might get a text message to take a quick survey. Could be big in Europe and in the US among teens.
- H3: Think LinkedIn, but with money. If you're trying to hire someone, you put a hiring bounty on the job, and send a note to your contacts. They can also send the note out to their contacts. When somebody finally gets hired, the bounty is split by the person who found the candidate and all the people who forwarded the note to him or her.
- KidConfidence.com: New site for parents that collects reviews of videogames for kids. Focuses on the playability and educational aspects. It might also scrape reviews from other sites (like other services do). Will be adding other media types (TV shows, movies) in the future.
- RB-apps: The company is building Web-based apps for business. The two examples I heard about: an event marketing system and an online media advertising billing system. The site is pretty sparse, so it doesn't look like you can try the apps out yet.
- Weebly: An AJAX-based Web site builder. A new release of this tool is coming soon, which I plan to cover.
- Zenter: Justin Kan told me about an online presentation app being created by some Y Combinator guys. Looks early stage. Guys: Get it done ASAP if you want Google to buy you.
- prev
- 1
- next
