---
title: "Best of Web Office This Week"
date: 2007-02-23
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2007"
    url: "/tag/2007.md"
---

# Best of Web Office This Week

I’m participating in the [Radar Relay](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/http://undertheradarblog.com/), a group blogging effort being run by Under The Radar in preparation for the upcoming [Office 2.0 event](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/http://www.undertheradarblog.com/under_the_radar_conference.html) on March 23 in Silicon Valley (I will be a judge at the conference). So in this post I’ll be highlighting some of the office 2.0 news that came out this week.

The big news of course was [Google releasing](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/google-apps-grows-up.html) a Premier Edition of its [Google Apps](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/https://www.google.com/a/) suite of office tools. The new-look suite includes the existing Google Apps tools – Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Page Creator and Start Page – plus Google Docs & Spreadsheets, a set of APIs and third party services, and a solid support and hosting package. [We covered this on Read/WriteWeb](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_apps_premier.php), noting that it still falls short of a full office suite – missing is presentations, CRM, JotSpot(!) and other things. Also lacking is full integration and collaboration between the apps, a la Basecamp or Central Desktop. So Google Apps is a step forward, but by no means the final deal.

I was interested to read Zoho’s reaction to this – as Zoho is one of the small startups with its own office suite. In [their blog](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/http://blogs.zoho.com/general/so-what-does-this-mean-for-zoho/) they wrote that its aim is to be a best-of-breed solution that gets a nice little slice of the market:

> “Our business plan is not based on us beating Microsoft or Google, it is based on serving customers well enough to earn a profitable share of the market. Business is not superbowl, though it often appears that way in a 24×7 news cycle.”

[Not everyone](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/http://www.zoliblog.com/blog/_archives/2007/2/22/2756564.html) wanted to write about Google Apps this week 😉 Also check out Between The Lines’ post, which warns us to [read the fine print](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=4537) of Google Office.

Two in-depth office 20 articles this week worth checking out are: Dion Hinchcliffe’s [Tracking the DIY phenomenon Part 1: Widgets, badges, and gadgets](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=80) and Rod Boothby’s article about [the recombinatorial web](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/http://www.innovationcreators.com/2007/02/how_many_ways_can_your_service.html).

And two blogs that are doing a good job of covering office 2.0 startups are Rafe Needleman’s CNET blog [Webware](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/http://www.webware.com/) and Ismael Ghalimi’s [IT|Redux](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/http://www.itredux.com/). Catching my eye on Webware this week was [Yackpack](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/http://www.yackpack.com/), [a messaging tool](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9689931-2.html?tag=blog) “that lets you chat live as a group or swap recorded messages to group members, all within your Web browser”. Also check out Ismael’s [Desktop Roundup](https://web.archive.org/web/20120312203959/http://itredux.com/blog/2007/02/19/desktop-roundup/), which profiles “16 online desktop applications, from Clic!Dev to YourMinis”.

Any other office 2.0 news or apps that got your attention this week?



*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/best_of_web_office_this_week_23feb07.php))*