One of the web office suites I’m fond of is Zoho, which has been slowly building up its user base since day one. Today, Zoho announced three applications for Facebook — Writer, Sheet, and Show — which might just do their part in attracting the younger audience, students in particular, to the web office world.
Users can create, edit, and view existing documents (Writer), spreadsheets (Sheet), and presentations (Show) through the application. It’s worth noting, however, that the applications are essentially cross-links with Zoho’s own (on their website), and don’t feature an interface right within Facebook.
According to Zoho, 30% of theirs users reportedly consist of students, which shows a great clash with Facebook’s demographic and gives them a good user base to initially popularize their application — that is, if they can convince users that they have an actual use for it.
For Zoho, it’s been a lot of steady growth in the past year or so. With the rise of the Google Office, they’re bound to face fierce competition in the near future, although they have the edge of an early startup that $60,000-per-annum engineers at Google don’t.
Waste of time. People get on Facebook to goof off. Spreadsheets are *not* fun.
I agree with PJ, I just can’t see these application widgets getting much use for writing papers while on Facebook. However, from a marketing perspective this could be a really nice way to gain exposure to would-be users. I am sure that more than a few Facebook users have never heard of Zoho, let alone the concept of an online office suite instead of just firing up Microsoft Word. So if anything, this is just some free advertisement.
[...] That problem is in sharp relief with Zoho’s new Facebook App: [...]
Erik and pj,
While I have to agree on the free advertisement bit, we can’t underestimate Zoho’s own userbase. 30% of them are students and if we estimate that 90% of them use Facebook, I, as a student who finds Facebook a ‘distraction’ but spend a lot of my online time on it, would be more than willing to use the Zoho app to complete my papers and assignments through or while I’m ‘Facebooking.’ While it is true that this is a relatively small number of people, it’s still a great way to bring something to a demographic who would’ve thought otherwise.
Also, in the same way that a few years ago we wouldn’t have thought people will use the Internet to make and socialize with friends, I think people are undermining the use of online office apps to get stuff done. The Facebook app is a perfect example of one of the advantages of it — and we’re surely going to see more if not already.
Also, Zoho people have told that they will integrate more closely in the coming versions. This could turn into a big hit if you can share Zoho docs easily among your facebook friends. How about doing your class assignments while facebooking?
I am a new user of Facebook, but I think that Zoho will catch on with Facebook users.
Not only is the Zoho suite a decent set of tools, it allows for online collaboration. Who else would you collaborate wtih but with your fellow students on Facebook.
I wrote up a walkthrough of how easy it is to use Zoho on Facebook.
[...] those documents yet, but Zoho plans to enable users to write from their iPhones in the near future. Zoho’s Facebook application may take the fun out of Facebook, but it’s there as a productivity option for those who want [...]