---
title: "Web Office Jostling: Google Docs and ZohoX"
date: 2006-10-10
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2006"
    url: "/tag/2006.md"
---

# Web Office Jostling: Google Docs and ZohoX

Both Google and Zoho will be announcing new office product offerings at tomorrow’s Office 2.0 conference. [Steve Bryant from eWeek reports](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161504/http://oraclewatch.eweek.com/blogs/google_watch/archive/2006/10/10/13814.aspx):

> “Google will announce tomorrow at the Office 2.0 conference a new product called Google Docs, which will merge Writely and Google Spreadsheets into a collaboration and document management solution, according to sources.”

Google Docs will be available at docs.google.com. Writely and Google Spreadsheets already offer export to blog and other formats – and have similar sharing functionality. So this seems like common sense to merge the two products together. But once again, it all seems a tad unimaginative and piecemeal from Google – as with [Google Apps for Your Domain](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161504/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_office_image_gallery.php); which bundles together Gmail, Google Talk, Calendar and Page Creator. As always with Google, who knows what is around the corner. A full Web Office Suite must be in the works and it’s probably just that all the pieces of the jigsaw aren’t ready yet – they don’t have online presentations and project management products yet.

Meanwhile a small company that does have all the pieces, [Zoho](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161504/http://www.zoho.com/), is going to push out a [new version of Zoho Virtual Office](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161504/http://zohox.com/). Techcrunch [is reporting](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161504/http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/10/zoho-virtual-office-launching-tommorow-racing-google-to-market/) that it “will integrate most of the 10+ Zoho services already available and add several more like Webmail and calendaring.” As of now, the product includes web-based collaboration groupware such as email, documents and calendar. So it appears it’ll be upgraded to include the rest of the Zoho product range (spreadsheets, presentations, etc). If you want a quick tour of all these apps, check out [my Image Gallery on ZDNet](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161504/http://content.zdnet.com/2346-11423_22-33889.html).

As [I noted earlier this week](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161504/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/zoho_web_office_suite.php), Zoho is planning a full Web Office Suite. But I’m a little confused by the branding here, as it’s being called ZohoX as well. So is this a new brand, or an upgrade of the existing Zoho Virtual Office?

[Zoho Projects](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161504/http://www.zohoprojects.com/), their online project management tool, also went out of Beta yesterday. There’s no question then that Zoho has all the products required for a full web-based suite, so in that sense they are a step ahead of Google – and Microsoft. But the space is still fairly immature and so a lot of jostling for position is going on.

Related posts: [Zoho Web Office Suite Image Gallery](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161504/http://content.zdnet.com/2346-11423_22-33889.html); [Office 2.0 Podcast Jam Kicks Off](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161504/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/office_20_podcast_jam.php); [Zoho Moving Towards A Full Web Office Suite](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161504/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/zoho_web_office_suite.php)

*Disclaimer: Zoho is a R/WW sponsor*

**UPDATE:**[Google Docs & Spreadsheets](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161504/http://docs.google.com/) (another great name) is now live.

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/web_office_jostling_google_zoho.php))*