By Jeff Bertolucci
PC World (US)
March 8, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - Google’s got its head in the cloud–again. The search giant today announced that it has bought DocVerse, a software startup that makes an online collaboration plug-in for Microsoft Office. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google paid $25 million for the San Francisco-based developer, which was founded in 2007 by former Microsoft employees Shan Sinha and Alex DeNeui.

The DocVerse deal wraps up an acquisitive week for Google, which announced Monday that it gobbled up online photo-editing site Picnik.

Office, Meet Apps

So what are Google’s intentions for its latest conquest? “Our first step will be to combine DocVerse with Google Apps to create a bridge between Microsoft Office and Google Apps,” write DeNeui and Sinha in their DocVerse blog. Their plug-in currently allows MS Office users to work collaboratively on Excel, PowerPoint, and Word documents, even when they’re offline.

If implemented correctly, DocVerse’s Office-to-Apps bridge can help Google position its Apps communications and collaboration suite as a viable alternative to Microsoft products in the enterprise market. A collaborative tool that enables seamless (or at least pretty good) integration between the competitors’ business apps could only serve to help Google and harm Microsoft, which has reigned over the enterprise market for years.

A Cloudy Outlook

The DocVerse acquisition fits nicely with Google’s cloud-based view, and with the search company’s not-so-subtle efforts to dethrone the desktop-centric MS Office.

“The future of productivity applications is in the cloud,” blogs Google Apps group product manager Jonathan Rochelle. “But we recognize that many people are still accustomed to desktop software. So as we continue to improve Google Docs and Google Sites as rich collaboration tools, we’re also making it easier for people to transition to the cloud, and interoperate with desktop applications like Microsoft Office,” Rochelle writes.
Google recently added advanced data backup and recovery capabilities to all components of the Apps suite. It also introduced mobile device management tools for users of Google Apps Premier and Education Edition. Today’s DocVerse announcement is yet another sign of Google’s business-market play.

Microsoft, of course, is developing its own cloud-based strategy too. Its upcoming Office 2010, for instance, will feature numerous Web-based enhancements, including scaled-down online versions of core Office desktop apps.

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By David Coursey
PC World (US)
January 4, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - As 2009 becomes 2010, Google remains the most interesting technology company. Google is involved in so many–probably too many–things and the regulatory environment, if not competition, has begun to heat up.

With that in mind, I offer 10 “New Year’s Resolutions” for the crew at the Googleplex, in the hope that Google can, in some cases, change its ways before government steps in to change them:

1. Do a better job of communicating with users regarding privacy. This seems obvious enough, but Google needs better help users understand what it is (and isn’t) doing with the information it gathers about them and their habits.

Ultimately, Google will be ordered to submit to some form of external oversight, so perhaps the company should get ahead of the curve and fund an independent Google privacy watchdog. It would provide counsel to the company and transparency to its users.

I trust Google’s current management–as I trust Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer–but users have reasons to fear Google’s collection and use of information, even in its search index. There will be restrictions placed upon the company, and I believe that will be a good thing over the long haul.

2. Be more proactive in dealing with government. 2010 is likely the year the Feds will start moving in on Google. I am especially interested on how the company has used “free” services, underwritten with ad revenue, to stifle real or potential competition outside of its core search business. Ultimately, Google is going to court.

3. Stay out of the social network business. Google has tried social networking and failed. Knol and Orkut have not come close to success. Give up.

4. Google should decide it is not a hardware company. I do not like the idea of Google competing with hardware vendors. I though the Droid was supposed to be Google’s idea of what a smartphone should be. Now it’s the Nexus One. What will it be next week? My hope is the handset manufacturers will gang up against Google for this sort of behavior.

5. Likewise Chrome OS hardware. It’s great for Google to create specs and reference designs, probably wrong for it to actually brand and sell hardware. I think “Made for Chrome OS” stickers are as far as it should go.

6. Make better applications. Am I the only one who notices that Google Apps don’t nearly compete with Microsoft Office if you actually care what the output looks like? Or if you need features beyond the basic set Google provides?

7. Give up on the AdMob purchase. 2010 really is the year Google will bump into external restrictions, if it doesn’t impose them itself.

8. Support competing operating systems. Where is Google Maps Navigation for the iPhone? Apple has said Google can submit the app for approval. I haven’t heard anything since.

9. Make Google Voice a more useful service. Google Voice could replace people’s telephone service with a VoIP product, but isn’t quite up to the task in its present form. Great start, though.

10. I have tried playing with the Google Wave collaboration beta and still find it to be a head scratcher. I think this is another technology in search of a problem to solve. No collaboration product–I am thinking of Lotus Notes and Microsoft Groove as primary examples–has yet become a must-have for average business users. Wave shows promise, but isn’t even close in functionality and ease-of-use. Having said that, collaboration is an incredibly tough problem to solve.

So, there are 10 things that Google should do to improve products and get ahead of the regulators.

As we begin a new year, I am wondering whether 2010 will be the year customers start to rebel against Google or whether the aura of “free” this and that has completely blinded them to the potential and real dangers Google may pose.

People who worried about Microsoft should really worry about Google.

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By Erik Larkin
PC World (US)
December 21, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - A dangerous vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6 and 7 became publicly known before a fix was available, raising the specter of a high-risk zero-day attack.
The bug involves the way IE handles Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) objects, and could let an attacker run any command on a targeted Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003, or Server 2008 PC. Bad guys have already posted sample attack code online. IE 8 is not affected. For more information, see Microsoft Security Advisory 977981. Meanwhile, a bug in the way Windows handles Embedded OpenType could allow a baddie to take over vulnerable Windows XP, 2000, or Server 2003 computers via malicious Websites or poisoned Office documents. The bug can’t harm Vista or Server 2008, and doesn’t affect Windows 7. Read Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-065 for details.
Office File Flaws

Two other patches repair Office flaws in Excel and Word affecting Office XP and 2003, and Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac.
The Excel bug endangers Office 2007, Office Excel Viewer 2003, and the Office Excel Viewer Service Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. The Word flaw also affects Open XML File Format Converter for Mac, Office Word Viewer 2003, and Office Word Viewer. Microsoft rates the flaws as im­­portant; see Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-067 (Ex­­cel) and Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-068 (Word). Microsoft has also released two critical fixes for business networks. One closes a hole in the Web Services on Devices application programming interface; it’s critical for Vista and Server 2008 (see Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-063). The second flaw affects only Windows 2000 systems running License Logging Server (see Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-064).
Java and Opera Bump Up

Sun’s Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and Java Development Kit (JDK) Update 17 closes a number of holes, including a serious flaw that allows attacks via Web pages. Java will check monthly to see whether updates are available, but you can check manually, too: Open Control Panel and double-click the Java icon. On the Update tab, click Update now. After updating, you may need to remove old Java versions manually with Add or Remove Programs. For details, or to download the latest Java, head to Sun’s Java SE Downloads page.
Version 10.10 of Opera’s Web browser fixes numerous bugs, including one that might let malicious JavaScript on a Web page launch an attack. Click Help, Check for updates to confirm that you have the latest version of Opera; if not, you can download Opera 10.10 from PCWorld’s Downloads Library.
Fix Shockwave and Mac OS X

An attack on critical vulnerabilities in Shockwave Player versions prior to 11.5.1.601 could “run malicious code on an affected system,” Adobe says. Check your Shockwave version at Adobe’s special testing page, and get the latest iteration (Shockwave 11.5.2.602) from our Downloads pages.

Finally, the Mac OS X 10.6.2 update corrects various problems involving PDF files, H.264 movies, TIFF images, and other things. Get it via Software Update, and read more at About Security Update 2009-006.

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By Gregg Keizer
Computerworld (US)
November 25, 2009

FRAMINGHAM - Microsoft launched the beta of Office Home and Business 2010 over the weekend and is delivering the preview using its new “streaming” download technology.

The beta was the second that Microsoft made available to the general public, and followed the enterprise-grade Office Professional Plus 2010 test edition that it unveiled last week .

Microsoft’s move came just three days after it sent invitations to a small group of people asking them to test Home and Business.

The preview gives the general public a chance to try one of the three editions Microsoft will sell at retail, and includes Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Microsoft has not yet set prices for Office 2010, or slated a ship date more specific than sometime during the first half of 2010.

Home and Business is the first beta of Office 2010 that Microsoft is delivering via its Click-To-Run system, which “streams” pieces of the suite as users begin a download, letting them start working with the suite in minutes. While users work with the trial, the remainder of the code is downloaded in the background. The technology also places Home and Business in a virtualized environment, separating it from the rest of Windows by running its applications from a virtual “Q:” drive.

Although Click-To-Run lets users run the beta on a PC without disturbing existing installations of Office — with the exception of Outlook, since only one copy of the e-mail client can run on a given machine — it also presents some problems, Microsoft has acknowledged.

According to a Nov. 6 entry on the Office engineering team’s blog, users may find that some Office add-ons won’t work when running software delivered by Click-To-Run. “In some cases, add-ins might have trouble locating the Click-to-Run Office products on the machine, or they might have issues communicating with Office products when they are running in the virtual environment,” the team admitted.

Click-To-Run products like Home and Office also ditch Microsoft’s usual patching process, and instead update automatically and without any user approval. “Click-to-Run users also get updated automatically over time, with no need to download or install patches,” added the Office team in its blog post. “The product seamlessly updates itself in the background.”

Home and Business can be downloaded in English, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish editions from Microsoft’s Web site.

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By Eric Lai
Computerworld (US)
November 13, 2009

FRAMINGHAM - While companies are starting to seriously look at the hosted applications from Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. — and Google Apps is winning converts among schools and small firms — Microsoft’s incumbent status gives it a leg up, according to CIOs interviewed at the Society for Information Management (SIM) conference in Seattle this week.

Mueller Water Products Inc., for instance, is piloting Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), which includes Microsoft-hosted versions of Exchange, SharePoint and other apps introduced a year ago.

“We had Google in to look at their apps,” said Bob Keefe, Mueller’s CIO. The Atlanta manufacturer has 5,300 employees, of which 2,200 use PCs with Windows XP and Microsoft Office. “We’re really trying to keep budgets slim. To change out the whole company [to Google Apps] in this economic environment would require a lot of retraining, and that would be very costly.”

Retraining costs also dissuaded the United States Tennis Association (USTA) from moving to Google Apps, according to CIO Larry Bonfante. The USTA “looked very seriously” at Google Apps last year, but ultimately stayed with the known quantity, Microsoft Office. More than half of the USTA’s 750 employees and volunteers are located outside of its White Plains, N.Y. headquarters.

That hasn’t stopped the USTA from shifting many of its back-end applications online, including its Exchange e-mail system, which is run by Web hosting firm USA.net, Bonfante said.

Oregon State University has a strong relationship with Google, which has donated more than $1 million to OSU’s open-source lab. But OSU also recently upgraded to Exchange 2007 for its e-mail. And it remains firmly on Microsoft Office, said CIO Curt Pederson, because of Microsoft’s deep educational discounts and the preference of OSU faculty members.

The situation is different at Sunoco Inc. The gasoline retailer is looking carefully at both Microsoft’s BPOS and Google Apps for its 1,000 office workers, CIO Peter Whatnell said. The company only recently upgraded to Office 2003 at the beginning of this year.

Insurance firm Chubb Corp. has not started to test either Google or Microsoft’s hosted offerings (the latter also includes the coming Web version of Office 2010 .) But group CIO Jim Knight says “the whole concept appeals to me.”

“Eighty percent of our employees are using 10% of the functionality of Office,” he said. “So I could seriously consider Google Apps for 80% of my users, with the other 20% getting the full Office.”

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By Tony Bradley
PC World (US)

SAN FRANCISCO (09/18/2009) - Microsoft has opened up a sneak peek at the Technical Preview of the upcoming Office Web Apps, and you can take it for a spin. Using the cloud-based SkyDrive storage as a backbone, Microsoft Office Web Apps enables to access and work with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files using any (compatible) Web browser from any Internet-connected device in the world.
The Office Web Apps components do not have the same comprehensive feature sets of their Microsoft Office desktop suite peers, but they provide a platform for creating and editing basic files via the Web. Microsoft has developed Office Web Apps to ensure that Office documents render accurately in browsers-even mobile device browsers-without data loss or formatting issues.

Users who have the Microsoft Office applications installed locally on their computer can save directly to the SkyDrive storage or open files directly from the cloud within Office 2010 applications (via Backstage).
Office Web Apps supports Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari web browsers. Chrome and Opera are missing from that list, but Chrome and Opera combined have less than 5 percent of the browser market combined so that isn’t a huge loss.
The Office Web Apps tools may very well work just fine in Chrome, Opera, or other browsers, but Microsoft hasn’t gone out of its way to develop for those platforms or test them to ensure compatibility. Files may not render properly on untested Web browsers and the consistency of the Office experience can’t be guaranteed.

Do you want to check it out for yourself? Just go to skydrive.live.com. You will need a Windows Live ID to log in to SkyDrive (you can sign up for it from the SkyDrive login page).
Once you are logged in to SkyDrive, click on the My Documents folder. If you don’t have any files stored in your SkyDrive My Documents folder yet, upload a Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel file. After there are files present in the folder you will see a blue bar across the top of the files with a link to “Join our preview program”.

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