Publish Results with Forms and Spreadsheets

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When you create a form, associated with a spreadsheet, you can now elect to share results — a summary of responses — with your collaborators, or with everybody that fills in the form.

Learn more here.

“Spreadsheet Lite” Improves Access from Mobile Phones

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Google has added “List View” to Google Spreadsheets. List view is a basic, fast-loading view of a spreadsheet, with simplified editing features. It makes it easy to access Google Spreadsheets:

  • On a slow Internet connection
  • From some mobile phones
  • When there are more than 50 users trying to access a spreadsheet at the same time

Learn more here.

Google Spreadsheets Get Data Validation

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Google has added data validation (lenient or strict) to Google Spreadsheets. You can now:

  • Validate numbers, dates, and text.
  • Prevent users from entering text that doesn’t match your criteria, or show them a comment on the cell when the data doesn’t match the validation rule.
  • Add text to the cells you add validation to, to help your collaborators enter the right type of data.

Learn more here.

Microsoft Changes Controversial SaaS Billing Policies

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After a generation of confusing and frustrating licensing policies, Microsoft may actually be listening to its channel partners. Reported by ChannelWeb, Microsoft will let channel partners bill customers for SaaS services.

Google Starts Down Certification Path

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Google announced that they are offering on-line courses and a certification test for Google Analytics. This is a good start in helping business owners understand if they are engaging qualified resources.

We look forward to Google expanding the program to their other product lines. We also encourage Google to consider a practicum or customer references to further validate skill sets.

Microsoft Gives Hosting Firms Toolkit and Ability to Build More Infrastructure

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As reported in Web Host Industry Review, Microsoft has released a Data Center Toolkit designed to help web hosting firms host and manage other services on the MS Platform.

In doing so, Microsoft is asking web hosting firms to further expand their capital infrastructure. Why not provide web hosting firm with access to a cloud on which they can provision and offer services?

Google Provides Blog Converters

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As part of it’s open source initiatives, Google has released Google Blog Converters 1.0.

Kudos to Google for helping users move from as well as to Google’s Blogger service.

Google Leaks Sneak Peak at Offline Tasks

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An avid Google-watcher, Google Blogoscoped caught a glimpse of offline Tasks when Google temporarily allowed access beyond their Trusted Tester network.

Cloud Computing May Be Better Than Teenage Sex

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In a blog from the Cloud Computing Expo, Walter Pinson asks, “Is Cloud Computing Like Teenage Sex?“. His premise is that while everybody is talking about Cloud Computing, few corporations are actually doing it. Here is what he is not seeing.

Cloud Computing covers a variety of types of services, which I generally divide into three categories: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

Systems like Salesforce.com, eBid, and FirePond demonstrate that corporations are more than willing to put critical business processes in the cloud and that these applications can and will integrate with other corporate systems.

37Signals, the developer of award-winning Web 2.0 solutions such as Basecamp replaced their internal data center with the Amazon cloud. Similarly, our friends at ten24web have built a platform for integrated email/web marketing in the cloud.

When innovative companies are forsaking infrastructure for cloud-resident platforms and infrastructure, and companies of all sizes rely on cloud-resident applications and systems for revenue-critical services, Cloud Computing is real and in use.

Granted, cloud computing vendors may not be publicizing their users. Then again, corporate customers may not want their competitors knowing their technology strategy

Cisco Steps into Cloud — sort of — With Email Security Product

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Cisco, leveraging its Ironport appliances, has announce email security capabilities that can sit in-house, in a Cisco-managed environment, or both.

As reported by NetworkWorld, Cisco will provision dedicated or virtualized systems for each customer.

In other words, this is not a cloud-based service. Cisco offering a traditional, managed hosted service.