Google Fusion Tables: Databases in The Cloud

On June 9th, Google quietly announced the Beta availability of Google Fusion Tables. This “Labs” application provides the ability to query multiple databases and data sources, including social media, rss, and other live feeds.

While an early labs release, Google Fusion Tables is a clear indication that Google hears its customers’ desire for better data management with Google Apps Premier Edition and the “cloud”, in general.

Zipcar Becomes a SaaS Provider?

You may know Zipcar as the trendy car sharing (er, hourly rental) service. They have made headlines renting hybrids and other vehicles parked in reserved spaces in local neighborhoods. For $7 an hour an up, customers reserve vehicles via the website and open the doors using a credit card reader.

The brains behind Zipcar, their fleet management system, is now available as a Software as a Services (SaaS) offering. By monetizing (for real) their intellectual property, Zipcar is opening a new avenue of B2B revenue to enhance their B2C roots.

Read more here.

Expanding APIs create simple database capabilities in Google Apps

For the developers among us, Google has added two new APIs to Google Docs. Table Feeds and Record Feeds allow placement and management of tables and data in spreadsheets.

With these feeds, Google demonstrates how spreadsheets can be used to manage structured data for other applications.

Click here for more.

File under “Would you use this?” — Ads on Google Sites

Google Sites is a powerful component within Google Apps. As a platform for document and information sharing and collaboration, most organizations see Google Sites as a means to provide Intranets, project sites, and secure customer portals.

Google Sites, however, can be made public. Some businesses (including Google) use this capability for open information portals.

Taking public and open the next steps, Google has integrated AdSense and Google Sites. If you have an AdSense accounts, you can now place ads and monetize their Google Sites.

Click here for more info.

Google Apps vs Exchange In-House

Functionality, cost, and user experience all play into the decision to run Google Apps versus Exchange in-house.

Our latest take … we’ve added “the user experience” as our 8th consideration. With the addition of Outlook Sync for Google Apps, users can maintain their current client and services and have access to the additional features offered by Google Apps Premier Edition.

See the presentation here.

Mixing Google Docs and MS Office 2007

Our position regarding Google Docs — including docs, spreadsheets, presentation, and forms — is as follows:

  • Google Docs offer great collaboration capabilities but are not mature enough to replace MS Office or Open Open office for most users
  • The formatting and controls in Google Docs are not yet mature enough compared to MS Office features used by intermediate and advanced users

That said, the integration between MS Office and Google Docs is elegant and effective. When uploading MS Office documents, Google docs generally read and maintain formatting and document features, even if you could not create those features directly within Google Docs. Once uploaded, the real-time collaboration — particularly in docs and spreadsheets — is effective and efficient.

Recently, Google added support for docx and xlsx formats. MS Office 2007 documents now import easily into docs and spreadsheets.

Click here to learn more

Google Apps vs. Exchange – Part 2

Until yesterday, Part 2 of the comparison was going to look at some of the more esoteric feature comparison between Google Apps and Exchange. Specifically, I was going to cover how Google Apps new Tasks features integrate with email and calendar functions in comparison to isolated manner in which Tasks function in Exchange/Outlook (separate reminders, separate date tracking).

Today’s announcement by Google of a MAPI-based Outlook Synchronization solution, however, changes the focus completely.

With this capability, Outlook users can continue to use Outlook without the limitations of running as an IMAP client.

Click Here for Google’s Announcement and to Learn More.

We’ll be testing the add-on over the next week or so and I will post our findings as well.

5 Things to Know about Google Wave (from PC Mag)

With the industry buzzing about Google Wave (and Facebook and Twitter likely rethinking strategy), PC Magazine provides a good overview of things you should know about Google Wave as it approaches release.

Read the Article Here.

Will You Catch the Google Wave?

What if some of the most create web developers decided to rethink email, IM, and Internet communications from scratch? What if they worked for a company with the resources to let them think and create for years? What is you could mix the real-time communication of Twitter and Facebook with the organization of email and contacts?

The answer: Google Wave. Take a sneak peek here.

Google Apps vs. Exchange — Part 1

Over the past several weeks, the Horizon team has received more questions about the comparison between MS Exchange and Google Apps as a communication and collaboration platform.

Here is a presentation that compares MS Exchange and Google Apps in terms of investment, management, and administration.

There are also many user features in Google Apps that our former Exchange/Outlook users really love. I will share some of these in upcoming posts.