by Aner Ravon
Filed under: web 2.0, social, Aner Bio, My Web Life Experiment, user experience
I was really excited when Google announced the rebirth of Apps. My expectations were high due to two main reasons. First of all, it takes a mega brand to do mass market education. I love Zoho, Clarizen and 37Signals, but they are not big enough to drive non-high tech SMEs to the web in masses. Perhaps more importantly, Google have so far managed to apply a “creative chef touch” to online office. GMail, Google Talk, Google Spreadsheets, Google Docs have all displayed freshness that kept the good essence of MS office but went beyond just mimicking; They managed to capture the value of the web over desktop - simplicity, easy collaboration and pure web elements such as free, advertising and blogging.
Then something happened. I really needed a solution for my company. A Solution for simple task and project management and for document sharing. Something not too expensive. Naturally I went online and started with Google Apps. I sadly found out that not only is Google Apps just a new marketing wrap for old stuff, it also has major flaws.
First of all, you need to manipulate your domain DNS to get started. Repeat, manipulate your DNS - CNAME, MX record and other Latin names. Why? Why do I need to touch the CNAME in order to start doing online task management on my domain? Can’t you verify my identity in some other way? It took me an hour just to figure out what to do (and I used to work at this!). Oh, one more little details, it takes about 48 hours for DNS changes to populate the Internet, which means I am still waiting for a verification in order to get started. Hard work and a 48 hour wait! What a contradiction to the whole concept! Do you seriously expect businesses to migrate this way?
During the process something “funny” happened. My partner’s Google calendar (which was registered to his work address, the one I was trying to activate) was deactivated. deactivated! He didn’t understand why he lost access to his calendar all of a sudden. I had to unregister his user at my still not working Google Apps suite. Luckily his calendar ”returned” after about an hour.
I put a stop to it right there. This was clearly half baked. All I needed was effective task management for 15 people in the first place. I checked out Zoho Projects, which seemed like a great web application but an overkill for simple task management. I finally landed on 37Singal’s Basecamp and got started. What a relief! Simple, easy to get started, works. it took me 15 minutes to get started. My colleagues got the hang of it in less than 10 more.
I’m going to stay off Google office for a while. Let me know when it’s usable.
Aner Ravon
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OK, I give up. I sent a note to our CTO this morning that we should be looking at Basecamp for our new project. Hey, is that viral marketing in action?
03.05.07 @ 5:40 pmUnfortunately, neither Bascamp nor Zoho are adequate for managing real-life business projects. I’ve been looking for a solution for some time now and find no solution that is collaborative and easy to use yet powerful enough to handle complex engineering projects.
After reading your post, I looked at Clarizen and was intrigued by their promise. I would certainly want to try their product once it is release.
03.07.07 @ 6:55 amAner,
We appreciate your feedback on Zoho. On Zoho Projects you feel it does too much while Joseph Fisher feels it does too little! That is the difficulty of getting a product right.
For example, while I use my cell phone pretty much only to make voice calls, I still looked for a camera and MP3 player integrated as features when I bought one. Reason: nice to know it is there when I need it!
Anyhow, please evaluate the other components of our office suite, and let us know what you think.
Thanks,
Sridhar
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I have been using Google Apps since August now … and I think its very cool. yes… it is nothing “new” but better then installing Exchange, no? But the best thing is the Google API. For example we are developing an FREE open source “business application platform” (think salesforce.com). Our first application is working tightly integrated with GOOGLE APPS. http://www.applicationexchange.com.
03.05.07 @ 12:37 pm