Google App Marketplace Could Revolutionize Cloud Computing
Mar 10th
You must have noticed that Google has been slowly inching towards a culture of Online cloud computing, and most companies, individuals and businesses have adapted to the culture of cloud computing because of its obvious advantages. Cloud computing allows users to manage data, applications and information in a way that traditional software or hardware don’t allow and the most important advantage is that you could access your data, application and software from any computer in the world, provided you have the ID and password.
However, cloud computing itself is not without disadvantages, and the most unpleasant one is the lack of applications directly integrated into Google. Hence, users copy and paste data, use different applications time and again in order to get everything into the cloud. Google itself has admitted that it does not have the expertise to integrate the hundreds of business applications out there into the cloud.
Thus Google has now announced that Google Apps Marketplace is now open for business. Developers and software providers can now join the new Online store for integrated business applications. These cloud applications will allow Google Apps customers to discover newer applications without having to manage each one of them separately.
At the moment, there are already more than 50 companies who are selling their applications. Some of the apps already available are
Intuit Online Payroll: It allows users to run payroll, pay taxes and check paystubs within an integrated online office environment.
Manymoon: It helps in organizing and sharing information with co-workers and partners, including tasks, projects, documents, status updates and links.
Professional Services Connect (PS Connect): This provides contextually relevant information about people, projects, customers and transactions so that one could make better decisions.
JIRA Studio: This app helps to track and manage project issues and workflow, especially in design and development of tools.
What the Google Apps Marketplace Is
It works similar to the Apple App Store, but is only cheaper. Google is asking the developers and businesses a onetime fee of $100 and 20% of the revenue in exchange to the access to 25 million Google users. Apps would be authenticated using OpenID and would be secured through oAuth. The applications would be accessible through a universal Google Apps navigation system.
How It Could Help Businesses
Businesses and companies could stop using multiple applications and get rid of the burden of having to remember multiple passwords for each applications. Whether you are an employee or a proprietor, you could use your Google account to access all these applications, and edit/use based on the permissions you have.
How It Could Help Individuals
Google Apps are used by not just companies and businesses but also students, freelance workers, and independent professionals. There are several account management apps, data related apps and other applications that could help the end user to make use of Google cloud computing and the Google App Marketplace makes it easy for everyone.
How Cool Is It Anyway?
Like I mentioned earlier, cloud computing has already become popular and most of us have been using Google Docs, and other apps successfully. The marketplace would allow us to access more applications which are not developed by Google but have been authenticated nevertheless. This allows for a streamlined system of working and managing data, software, accounts and information.
Companies and individuals could make use of payroll, data entry, management, and an office suite for instance and integrate them to the Google account. It would also help in terms of social media, data management and communication. Google App Marketplace could thus be a great beginning and a step in the direction!
Read more: Google App Marketplace Could Revolutionize Cloud Computing | Walyou
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The Promise of Cloud Computing and SaaS (Software as a Service)
Feb 4th
A global public relations firm with 120 employees transitions to cloud computing and the IT director lives to tell about the potential relief that software-as-a-service offers to IT.
The promise of cloud computing has been around for years.
Like any new technology, it’s taken time for the vendor community to work out the kinks and get cloud computing ready for prime time.
While cloud computing comes in numerous flavors, what I’m going to address and what’s typically most relevant to small or mid-sized businesses is software-as-a-service (SaaS). This means that applications are hosted by service providers instead of running on your hardware in the office.
This is a big deal.
My company — a global PR firm with offices across the United States, Asia, and Europe — depends on extremely high service levels from the IT function. As a one-woman band managing our technology operation, I’m always striving to simplify IT deployment, but it can’t be done at the expense of functionality.
This is what led me to evaluate cloud computing for our office applications. After doing my homework, three options were left on the table: Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.
We opted to go with Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) solution which was best-suited for our size, reach, and 24×7 response requirements. This said, you should take the time to evaluate all three options because each provider offers a little different functionality.
Microsoft BPOS is a fully deployed, cloud-based version of Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications Online, and Office Live Meeting, which allows us to offload basic functions such as e-mail and Web-based collaboration tools.
Continue Reading…Inc.com
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Twitter Vs Facebook History – Moving into the Cloud?
Jul 9th
Twitter Vs Facebook
HISTORY FACEBOOK
The advent of Facebook came about as a spin-off of a Harvard University version of Hot or Not called Facemash.[11] Mark Zuckerberg, while attending Harvard as a sophomore, concocted Facemash on October 28, 2003. Zuckerberg was blogging about a girl and trying to think of something to do to get her off his mind.[12] According to The Harvard Crimson, Facemash “used photos compiled from the online facebooks of nine Houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the ‘hotter’ person.” To accomplish this, Zuckerberg hacked into the protected areas of Harvard’s computer network and copied the house’s private dormitory ID images. “Perhaps Harvard will squelch it for legal reasons without realizing its value as a venture that could possibly be expanded to other schools (maybe even ones with good-looking people … ),” Zuckerberg wrote in his personal blog. “But one thing is certain, and it’s that I’m a jerk for making this site. Oh well. Someone had to do it eventually … “[13] The site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration. Zuckerberg was charged by the administration with breach of security, violating copyrights and violating individual privacy and faced expulsion, but ultimately the charges were dropped.[14]
The following semester, Zuckerberg founded “The Facebook”, originally located at thefacebook.com, on February 4, 2004.[15] “Everyone’s been talking a lot about a universal face book within Harvard,” Zuckerberg told The Harvard Crimson. “I think it’s kind of silly that it would take the University a couple of years to get around to it. I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week.”[16] Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College, and within the first month, more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered on the service.[17] Eduardo Saverin (business aspects), Dustin Moskovitz (programmer), Andrew McCollum (graphic artist), and Chris Hughes soon joined Zuckerberg to help promote the website. In March 2004, Facebook expanded to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale.[18] This expansion continued when it opened to all Ivy League and Boston area schools, and gradually most universities in Canada and the United States.[19] Facebook incorporated in the summer of 2004 and the entrepreneur Sean Parker, who had been informally advising Zuckerberg, became the company’s president.[20] In June 2004, Facebook moved its base of operations to Palo Alto, California.[18] The company dropped The from its name after purchasing the domain name facebook.com in 2005 for $200,000.[21]
Facebook launched a high school version in September 2005, which Zuckerberg called the next logical step.[22] At that time, high school networks required an invitation to join.[23] Facebook later expanded membership eligibility to employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft.[24] Facebook was then opened on September 26, 2006 to everyone of ages 13 and older with a valid e-mail address.[25][26] In October 2008, Facebook announced that it was to set up its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.[27]
HISTORY TWITTER
A circa 2000 blueprint sketch by Jack Dorsey, envisioning a SMS-based social network.
The birth of Twitter materialized out of a “daylong brainstorming session” where board members of the podcasting company Odeo, in an attempt to break out of a creative slump, broke up into teams to come up with ideas. During this session, Jack Dorsey introduced the idea of a service that used SMS to tell small groups what an individual was doing, partly inspired by TXTMob[8], an sms group messaging project which is now defunct.
The working name was just “Status” for a while. It actually didn’t have a name. We were trying to name it, and mobile was a big aspect of the product early on … We liked the SMS aspect, and how you could update from anywhere and receive from anywhere.
We wanted to capture that in the name — we wanted to capture that feeling: the physical sensation that you’re buzzing your friend’s pocket. It’s like buzzing all over the world. So we did a bunch of name-storming, and we came up with the word “twitch,” because the phone kind of vibrates when it moves. But “twitch” is not a good product name because it doesn’t bring up the right imagery. So we looked in the dictionary for words around it, and we came across the word “twitter,” and it was just perfect. The definition was “a short burst of inconsequential information,” and “chirps from birds.” And that’s exactly what the product was.
—Jack Dorsey[9]
The original product name/codename for the service was named twttr; inspired by Flickr and the fact that American SMS short codes are five characters. The developers prototyped with “10958″ as short code, later changing it to “40404″ for “ease of use and memorability.”[8] Work on the project started on March 21, 2006 when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 12:50 PM PST: “just setting up my twttr”.[10]
The first Twitter prototype was used as an internal service for Odeo employees, later launching publicly into a full-scale version in July 2006. In October 2006, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Dorsey and other members of Odeo formed Obvious Corp and acquired Odeo and all of its assets – including Odeo.com and Twitter.com – from the investors and other shareholders.[11] Twitter later spun off into its own company in April 2007.[12]
The tipping point for Twitter’s popularity came at the 2007 South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. During the event, usage tripled from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000.[13] According to Laughing Squid blogger Scott Beale, Twitter “absolutely rul[ed]” SXSW. Social software researcher Danah Boyd said Twitter “own[ed]” the festival.[14] “The Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages,” according to Newsweek’s Steven Levy. “Hundreds of conference-goers kept tabs on each other via constant twitters. Panelists and speakers mentioned the service, and the bloggers in attendance touted it. Soon everyone was buzzing and posting about this new thing that was sort of instant messaging and sort of blogging and maybe even a bit of sending a stream of telegrams.”[15] Also at the festival, Twitter won the SXSW Web Award. The team said, “We’d like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!”[16]
