Smaaz’s Blog

Google Added Features for Presentations to Google Docs

As part of its ongoing efforts to enable users to take advantage of the web for sharing and collaborating, Google today added features for presentations to the Google Docs application. At http://documents.google.com, users can create simple web-based presentations that others can update and view from their own computers, even at the same time. The presentation feature of Google Docs is also available to businesses, schools and organizations using Google Apps to offer communication and collaboration tools to their users.

Presentations are a natural addition for Google Docs, as they are usually created with the intention of being shared. Web-based, collaborative presentations offer users much-needed relief from manually managing and compiling group members’ input in separate attachments, and they make it possible for multiple users to view a set of slides while a moderator controls the presentation. Users will see that these features are still in simple, early stages; the Google Docs team is making them available today in response to strong user demand for presentation-sharing, and updates and improvements will continue to roll out over the coming months.

Google Docs is an innovative, web-based platform for creating, sharing, storing, and publishing documents; it now includes capabilities for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Starting today, users can:

• Create and keep presentations in one place on the web that’s accessible anytime, from any Internet connected computer.
• Manage, update and share presentations with colleagues by sending them a simple email invitation.
• Edit together online and in real-time, or contribute at different times to the same presentation on the web.
• Present and control slide shows for all viewers over the web, with no special setup required. Chat with viewers in real-time via integrated chat.
• Import existing presentations to get started quickly.
• Quickly publish presentations to the general public or individuals of their choice.

“This new presentation feature to Google Docs will be an extremely useful tool to our users and gives us an easy way to — literally — get on the same page,” said Scott Smith, vice president, Envirolet Environmental Sanitation and Google Apps administrator for Sancor Industries. “In our business the better the process for sharing information is, the better we can illustrate to our customers the value of our products.”

“From student groups to sales teams, people are turning to the web for help improving both personal and group productivity,” said Sam Schillace, director of engineering, Google Docs. “Putting documents in the cloud surrounded by easy to use features for collaboration and sharing can save people hours of inefficiency and frustration and even enable new ways of working together.”

Add comment September 18th, 2007

Yahoo! Acquires E-mail Company Zimbra

Yahoo! announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Zimbra, Inc. (www.zimbra.com), a leader in next generation e-mail and collaboration software. Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo! will acquire Zimbra for approximately $350 million.

“Our industry-leading communications products, including Yahoo! Mail, are critical to the future growth and success of Yahoo!,” said Jerry Yang, chief executive officer, Yahoo! Inc. “Zimbra’s tremendous talent and innovative technology will help to extend our core Mail offerings, further strengthening our strong leadership position in this space. Additionally, Zimbra’s successful relationships with large ISPs are key as we expand our worldwide partner network and continue to focus on our commitment to being the partner of choice.”

The acquisition of Zimbra will help Yahoo! to expand its presence in universities, businesses and through ISPs by enabling organizations to host e-mail on or off premises with their own domain. Zimbra’s offerings include rich, AJAX-based e-mail, calendar, and contact management features that can be used both on and offline. Their open platform enhances the user experience by enabling creative mash-ups called Zimlets that tie in valuable Web services to e-mail, and can be tailored to fit the needs of every customer.

“We are excited to combine ourselves with one of the world’s most successful Web mail services and extend Yahoo!’s credible brand and leadership in the e-mail business to universities, businesses and ISPs globally,” said Satish Dharmaraj, Zimbra co-founder and CEO. “With Yahoo!’s ad and content network, the possibilities for Zimlets and other applications are endless.”

Yahoo! Mail celebrates its 10th anniversary this year and continues to be one of the world’s most popular Web mail services with 250 million(1) users worldwide. The service provides people with more ways to connect to their friends and online contacts and is fully integrated with Yahoo!’s many other popular services to make it easy to access all the Internet services people need.

“As an industry leader, we are constantly approached for different e-mail solutions,” said Brad Garlinghouse, senior vice president, communications and communities, Yahoo! Inc. “With Zimbra, we will bring the security, reliability and anywhere access of Yahoo! Mail to people at school, work and home, further enhancing our leadership position in Web mail.”

Following the acquisition, Zimbra will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yahoo!. Satish Dharmaraj will continue to lead the Zimbra team based in Yahoo!’s Sunnyvale headquarters and will report to Brad Garlinghouse. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval. It is expected that the transaction will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Add comment September 18th, 2007