WEBVTT - How to be Productive Online 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies with 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:17.599 tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everyone, 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:20.160 and welcome again to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette, 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:22.120 and I am the tech editor here at how stuff 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:24.880 works dot Com. Sitting across from me, as he often 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:27.520 does on these occasions when I have to speak into 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:33.040 this microphone is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. How do y'all nice? 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:37.760 And um? We are going to talk today about being productive, 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.440 something we know a lot about here at how stuff 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:45.599 works dot com. We produce lots of things blogs, podcasts, articles, bs, 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:49.080 you name it, we produce it, But we don't tend 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.559 to use online productivity software, which is really what we 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:55.800 wanted to talk about today. In fact, we have to 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.960 thank our guest producer, Tyler. We call him guest producer 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:01.680 because you never know who going to produce our shows. Uh. 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:03.360 He's the one who actually came up with the title 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:07.000 for this one about online productivity software? How can I 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:09.959 be productive online? Well, there are a lot of companies 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:12.600 out there that have provided tools to do that, and 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:17.080 it's really marking a a shift in computing back in uh, 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:19.679 you know, the traditional route would be to have this 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.680 kind of software natively on your machine and you would 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:26.240 use it there and save all your work there. We're 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.000 starting to see all that shift over to the cloud, 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:34.080 and so it's it's one of those applications cloud computing applications. 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:36.800 It's really easy to point to and say, hey, this 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:40.520 is what we mean when we talk about cloud computing. Yes. Uh, 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:42.920 if you're not familiar with the term cloud computing, you 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:45.880 probably haven't been listening to our podcasts very often, because 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.600 we talk about it quite frequently. Um. Cloud computing is 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.080 uh sort of a relatively new thing that's really gone 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:55.680 on over the past few years, or at least not 0:01:56.240 --> 0:02:01.400 new outright, I would say adopted more often uh than 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:04.040 it had been in the past, because it's been made 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:08.120 popular by high speed internet connections. Rather than using your 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:12.359 computer's hard drive to store applications and files, um, this 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.800 can all be done now on a server in some location, 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:19.480 in fact, often frequently backed up. So there are many 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:22.200 many copies of the applications and files that you would 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:24.639 normally keep on your hard drive out there in what 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.720 they call the cloud, and you probably make use of 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.560 some of these sort of applications already, things like email. 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:33.040 There are a lot of web based email applications out there. 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:36.440 We're talking about things like Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail. In a way, 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:38.679 you can think of those as cloud computing because those 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:42.480 messages are uh they live, if you will, on a 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:44.919 server that could be hundreds or thousands of miles away 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.600 from you. Uh, but you're able to access them through 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.519 a browser. So the browsers acting as your user interface, 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.959 but you're really tapping into messages that are quite a 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:58.600 quite a ways away. Yes. Um, and that's the funny 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:00.640 thing about the productivity soft where that we're going to 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:04.600 talk about in just a moment here. Um. Unlike email 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:10.840 and services like dropbox, box, dot net, um, those that 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:14.880 that serve as a cloud storage device. Um. This is 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:16.679 this is the kind of thing that that you're going 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:20.000 to notice a lot more easily because, um, rather than 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:22.600 opening up an icon on your desktop, you're gonna go 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:27.280 and do everything really through your web browser. UM. So 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:31.040 where you uh, whereas you might do your word you know, 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:34.400 we're processing in a separate program from the program that 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:36.680 you would use for your spreadsheets. Now you're just doing 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:41.200 everything in Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:45.800 Um in some cases safari. Yeah, if you're the poor, 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:51.680 unfortunate Sari Safari hater. Um. So, uh so let's get started. 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.520 How did how did all of this really take off? 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.160 I mean, it's it's it's not something that just happened 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:00.440 with the dawn of the new decade. No. No, Let's well, 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:04.080 first of all, you gotta look at traditional productivity software. 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:07.200 When we're talking productivity software, we're talking about a specific 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:12.400 kind of UM suite of applications that people, usually within 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:17.239 office environments, rely upon on a daily basis. So things 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:23.600 like document word processing programs, spreadsheet programs, presentation programs, uh, 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:27.159 sometimes some other like file management systems, things like that. 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:29.920 That's really what we're looking at here. And uh and 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:33.000 as we said before, most of the time, back in 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:37.360 the you know, the late eighties, early nineties, these were 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.680 programs that existed on your computer. Everything existed there. If 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.240 you wanted to send someone something from your computer, you 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:47.599 essentially created a copy of it and send it to them. 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.719 So uh, then that you would have two copies of 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:52.800 the same document out That's going to be important later 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:56.800 on when we get into collaboration. UM. But that's kind 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:00.880 of the model that that everyone was used to. Cloud 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:05.599 computing moves all of these over into the cloud. These 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:09.080 these applications, like Chris said, are hosted on on other machines, 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:12.040 and you can access these applications through your browser. In 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:15.440 some cases, you may also have to download and install 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.760 a tool on your desktop to um to be able 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.880 to access and interface with these these applications. Not all 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.560 of them are solely cloud computing applications. Some of them 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:31.280 are kind of hybrids. Uh, But in general, everything you 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.080 access and save and uh and and rely upon is 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:37.520 going to be on other machines that you can tap 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:41.000 into at any time. How it came about is well, 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.680 it's kind of a gradual evolution. Really, one of the earliest, 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.920 I would say, Uh. You can argue that there were 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:50.080 tons of different ones that they came out before this, 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:52.680 but one of the ones that was that really kind 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:56.080 of made a big splash as far as online productivity 0:05:56.120 --> 0:06:00.000 software goes. It was Google Docs and Spreadsheets, which eventually 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.359 just became Google Docs. Now, part of that is just 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:05.560 because it had the name Google behind it. Anything that 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:08.320 has the name Google behind it has a certain amount 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:12.000 of momentum already because I mean, it's an enormous company, 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.560 right right. Another part is that Google did what it 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.359 does really well, and that they look out for other 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.040 other applications, other companies out there to do something really 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:23.680 well that they want to do, and then they go 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:27.200 out and buy them. Yes. So I know there are 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:30.000 a lot of other companies that that did the whole 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:34.760 cloud online productivity software stuff before Google did, but most 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:38.080 of those got bought by Google or or ended up 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:41.120 dying out because of Google, and and in some cases 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.800 were bought out by competitors. UM. The one that that 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:50.880 really I think kicked it off for Google was rightly UM, 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:56.760 which was an acclaimed word processor online only word processor 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.720 UM and at the time, which was I would say 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:05.440 in the mid nineties, probably around ninety Uh well, now 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.479 I'm sorry, mid two thousand's, early two thousand's UM. When 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.840 it first came out, I apologized for that. UM. You know, 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:13.520 people were talking about this because it was it was 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:18.080 sort of a new concept. People were really entrenched with, uh, 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:22.720 the Microsoft Office Suite, and this was this did online 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.559 cloud word processing very very well. It was an awesome tool. 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:29.760 And then Google acquired it and people were talking about 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:32.440 what Google was going to do with it. Well, it 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.800 wasn't long after that that they added the spreadsheet application 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.280 to make it. Uh you know, they started calling it 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:42.960 as the media will a Microsoft Office killer, right, which 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:46.280 uh you may have noticed that Microsoft Office has not 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:50.080 been killed yet, despite um, despite some legal setbacks which 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:51.679 I guess we can talk about in the minute too, 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.640 because we may see more of a focus put toward 0:07:54.800 --> 0:08:00.400 online productivity software simply because of some some legal issues 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.720 that Microsoft is currently facing with the whole words situation. 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:07.760 But I can get into that a little bit later. Um. Yeah, 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.160 that's a good point. And it also was what changed 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:13.440 Google Docs to Google Docs and spreadsheets that people started 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.960 calling it Google docs and spreadsheets. I do have a 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:20.800 spreadsheet that includes many small dogs. Some of them are 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:24.160 dogsins they are long dogs, so they are small get along, 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.360 little doggie, that's right there, Yes, so anyway, yes, the 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.960 weener dogs. But uh, and eventually Google dropped the spreadsheets 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:33.680 bits announced just Google Docs, even though it does contain 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:37.960 applications for both not just both, I'm sorry, applications for 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:42.400 word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. Well, they acquired other companies 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:45.600 to to uh, to fill out the portfolio, and it's 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.400 right including uh you know, Zenter and Tonic Systems UM. 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:51.960 And really, when you think about it, when you look 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.280 back up and look at the whole Google Docs picture, 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:59.319 they really have everything you will need to to uh 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:01.640 you know, the business tools that you need because they've 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:05.240 got Gmail for email, You've got your calendar, you've got 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:11.520 word processing presentation software. Uh, you've got um your spreadsheets. 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.480 You've also got other tools to like Google Wave. So 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:16.920 it really does all these different pieces, some of which 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.240 were acquired, some of which were built in house. You know, 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:25.120 they're very helpful to work with people collaboratively, and that's 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:27.440 one of the unique things that Google brings to the 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.000 table is the collaboration aspect. Right, well, it used to 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:32.360 be unique. I would argue that there are a lot 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:35.120 of other online productivity software suites out there now that 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:39.920 are building their entire marketing strategy behind the collaborative, collaborative 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:44.480 nature of online computing. UM. So, when we're talking about collaborative, 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:47.480 like I said before, when you were working on a 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:52.160 document that was on a native word processing application on 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:54.560 your computer and you wanted someone else to look at it, 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:56.760 you know, you might send them in an email or whatever, 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:59.360 but they would get a copy of your document. The 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:02.280 original would still sit on your computer. Now, what if 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.200 that person were to look at that document, make changes, 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:07.240 and then send it back to you. Well, there are 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:09.680 a couple of different ways you could incorporate those changes 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:13.200 within your own document. You could just accept the new 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.440 document as the new master and you get rid of 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:19.120 the old one. You could compare the two and then 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:23.200 make changes on a change by change basis. But it 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:25.320 was just kind of a clunky way of handling it, 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.960 especially if you were doing a collaborative effort with multiple people. 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:31.720 Now you're not. Now you're looking at four or five 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:35.040 different versions of the same document circulating out there, and 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:37.560 then maybe coming back totally changed from what you started with. 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.760 And then then it gets really kind of complex. Well, 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.400 the nice thing about Google Docs and some other online 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:48.040 productivity software out there, Uh I mean Office Live? Does this? Um? 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.680 Microsoft Office Live? Yes, Microsoft Office Live. So Microsoft is 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:55.640 in this game too, folks. Zoho does this? Think Free 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:58.760 does this? There are a lot of different online productivity 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:01.840 software suites that allow line collaboration. Well, in this case, 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:05.680 everyone's working from the same master document. It exists on 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:08.880 the in in a certain account, and and the person 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:11.920 who owns that account, who created that document, can designate 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:15.080 who and who cannot um who can and who cannot 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.200 access that document, And in some cases you might have 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:20.840 multiple levels of access. It might be these people can 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:23.520 read the document, but they can't make any changes, or 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:26.880 these people can make changes, but they can't invite anyone else, 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:29.000 And then you might ultimately get to Okay, well, this 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:32.559 person can make changes, can approve changes, and can also 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:36.439 invite new people to participate within the collaboration. So when 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:38.400 you do this, when people make the changes, it goes 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:41.560 to the master document. Everyone can see the changes, and 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.600 um most of them have a way of being able 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:47.800 to review over time what changes have been made. Google 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:51.000 docs in particular makes this pretty easy where you can, uh, 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:52.520 you know, if you get to if you if you 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:54.960 created a document and then five other people have been 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:56.520 working on it and you haven't looked at it in 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:59.040 a couple of days, it can get really confusing when 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:01.160 you're looking at like, okay, well who made what change? 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.480 When did it happen? Um? Do I really that one 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:06.880 paragraph I liked is gone? Now? Do I want to 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:08.600 try and bring it back? If I do? You know 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:11.000 when did it go away? You can actually review the 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.920 series of changes and see where that happened and UH 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:17.400 and decide whether or not it makes sense to reincorporate 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:20.680 that text. And one of the neat things UH that 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.640 Google added to its Google Docs that made a few 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.559 headlines when when they did was the ability to work 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:29.199 on from more than one person to work on the 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.280 same document at the same time, and Google Docs would 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.199 be able to keep track of what was going on 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:38.640 UH in both instances, so rather than having to lock 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.240 someone else out, say okay, well Bob needs to work 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:43.400 on this, Bob's checked it out. No one else can 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:45.640 touch it until Bob checks it back into the to 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:49.079 the system UM, which is a nice way of handling it. 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:51.800 But this is even more elegant because it can it 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:55.400 can identify what each person does to the document, and 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:59.720 therefore no one's losing anything. And you know, the stuff 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:01.760 that you just spent half an hour on doesn't get 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:05.960 over written simply because the system can't handle multiple people 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:07.800 making changes to it at the same time, which is 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:12.600 very very nice. Another issue you may think about when 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:17.240 when we're talking about online productivity software is what happens 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:21.440 if you don't have an Internet connection, So they're gonna 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:24.520 be times where that happens where you're not gonna have access. 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:26.680 Maybe you're on a flight that doesn't have WiFi yet, 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:30.160 or maybe you're just in an area of you know, 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:34.240 town where you have no access, or maybe the truck 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:37.600 down the street hit the fiber optic connection and there 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:40.200 it goes. Maybe your neighbors finally got wise and actually 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:44.120 put a password on their WiFi. I'm just saying it happens. 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:49.800 So what do you do then? Do you just say, oh, well, 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:51.280 I guess I have to wait till I get back 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:53.080 in the office before I can work on this. Well, 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:58.560 most of these these solutions have incorporated some form of 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.480 synchronous nation software where you can work on a document 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:05.600 offline and you can make changes to it, you can 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.640 save it, and then when you reconnect to the internet, 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:14.760 it will automatically incorporate those changes within the document online. Now, 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:17.560 of course, this could also cause some issues because what 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:19.640 if you have multiple people working offline and then they 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:23.040 all reconnect and um, I think ultimately you have to 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:27.200 have some sort of document management hierarchy in place, where 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:30.240 perhaps the person who created the document ultimately makes the 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:32.560 decision of which changes go in and which ones don't 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:35.040 because then it gets a little complex if you were 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:37.360 to have maybe four or five people working on something now, 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:40.680 and that I don't think that necessarily happens that often. 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:43.560 Perhaps you have a group of consultants working on a project, 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:47.200 or maybe you've got several reporters all working on say 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:51.000 a school paper, working on it within Google Docs. Perhaps 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:54.760 then I could see where that might cause problems, But 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:58.200 in most cases, you're that's gonna be kept to a minimum. 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:00.560 And like I said, it's Google Docs did this with 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.080 Google Gears. That was their their Google Labs thing where 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:07.680 you could actually access a lot of functionality on Google 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:12.600 um within their productivity suite, just even if you weren't connected. 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:16.080 But other ones do it to Office Live has their version, uh, 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:19.480 you know in Zoho. And so everyone's kind of come 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.400 up with their own solution to this problem so that 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:24.840 you know, you don't feel like, well, if I lose Internet, 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:26.960 does that mean I lose my ability to work on 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:32.280 whatever I was working on? Yeah, it's true enough. So, um, 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:34.840 there are lots and lots of things you can do. 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:38.360 I mean the uh, I think I can think of 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:44.320 four or five in particular, whole suites of applications, most 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.360 of them managed by big companies like of course there's 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.640 Google Docs, there's Microsoft Office Live. UM. That Another one 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.160 we talked about just now we haven't really gotten into 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:55.920 in depth was Zoho, which is independent and they have 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:59.840 an amazing array of online productivity software. Yes, yes, it's 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:03.840 all kinds of tools, notebook, contact Manager, UM, all kinds 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:09.640 of business group application which actually groups the most common 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:14.560 applications together into a single user interface. UH. And they 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:19.200 have plans on eventually allowing third party applications to UM. 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:22.400 Third parties to submit applications to their to their business 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:26.000 groups application, so that let's say that, you know, you 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:30.160 could really use a special kind of of newsreader that 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:34.440 isn't in this and it's almost like replacing your desktop. UM. Now, 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:36.960 as far as I can tell, they haven't implemented any 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:39.400 third party apps yet, but it's something that's in the 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:44.040 plans UM. And it's the nice thing about Zoho. And actually, 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:47.560 for most of these online productivity software solutions, it's free 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:49.680 for people to use if they're using it on an 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:53.720 individual basis. It's only when you get into organizations like 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.040 companies or you know, nonprofit organizations or whatever that you 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:00.320 have to start looking at a subscription policy. And then 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:02.320 that's when Zoho was like, all right, well, if you're 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:04.920 gonna use it as an enterprise thing, then you're gonna 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:08.040 need to to pay a certain fee per year to 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:10.639 access all of this and uh and then you know, 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:14.600 you might get some extra little perks that that the 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:19.840 free users don't necessarily have access to. Yeah, yeah, I think, um, 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:23.000 sort of digressing for a second. I feel like this 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:25.840 is this kind of software they have, the product basic 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.879 productivity software is this is just something that people expect 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:33.280 to see now as part of their uh, their computer suite. 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:35.080 You know, you have your operating system, you have email, 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:37.399 you have the web browser, and you have something that 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:40.159 will let you write a letter to somebody and you 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:44.119 know do some basic, uh basic productivity type work. And 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:47.120 I think that's why these these programs are coming down. 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.320 You know, it's possible. You know, Microsoft is also offering 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.440 less expensive like a home version of Office now where 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:57.440 it hadn't before, which you had to to fork over 0:17:57.680 --> 0:17:59.639 quite a bit of cash before if you wanted a 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:03.480 whole office suite, right, And we we should point out 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:09.240 also that in general, these online applications tend to be 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:12.080 a little. They don't have all the features and bells 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.400 and whistles that you'll find in a desktop application. Not 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:17.760 not really, not all of them. I mean you'll like, like, 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:20.199 if you were to go back to your desk and 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:24.000 open up Microsoft Word on your desk, you would have 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:27.679 access to way more functions that you're gonna get than 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:31.200 if you access the online version. Now that doesn't necessarily 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.080 mean these are vital functions. They may be functions that 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.800 you never use. Uh, maybe that all the the ones 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:40.680 that you have come to depend upon are fully covered 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.480 within the online version. But if you're a power user, 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:47.040 if you're someone who's using like those really obscure functions 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:50.560 that no one else in the world ever uses, then 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:55.480 moving to an online software uh kind of uh environment 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:59.040 may not be the best choice. Um, But I mean 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:03.240 that whole the whole thing is improving anyway on online. 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:05.920 I mean you're you're seeing like these suites get more 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:07.960 and more functionality as time goes on, and we would 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:11.120 expect to see that so uh. And again, I think 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:12.960 a lot of these companies are really starting to put 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.800 their weight behind on their online presence and kind of 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:19.640 take the focus away from the hardware stuff because look 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:22.600 at what's selling. You've got netbooks, they're selling really well, 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:25.200 and now you've got smart books coming out. These are 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:29.920 devices that are not necessarily capable of running these um 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:35.360 these uh, these applications natively like, especially things for presentations 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:38.520 that can take up a lot of memory depending on 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:40.840 how complex it is. But by putting it on the web, 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:43.600 suddenly you don't need a powerful machine to build these 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.000 these presentations because it's doing all the work for you, 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:47.840 and you don't need to hard drive space in order 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:50.240 to host the applications either. Yeah, that's a good point. 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:52.760 Google Docs, for an example, gives you a gigabyte of 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.240 free storage. In fact, they've opened it up now where 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:56.919 you can if you have a Google Docs account, you 0:19:56.920 --> 0:19:58.720 have a gigabyte of free storage that you can put 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:01.880 anything in. It doesn't have to be a Google doc 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:05.639 to or you know, spreadsheet or presentation or whatever for 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.240 it to go into their now. Granted, uh it can't. 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:10.920 Each individual file has to be two or fifty megabytes 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:13.760 or smaller. But you can put up to a gigabyte 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:16.920 for free in there, and if you want more, then 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:20.560 you can purchase more gigabytes for about a quarter a 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:24.280 gigabyte per year. It was. We took a look and 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:27.800 it was five dollars for twenty gigabytes for a full year. 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:32.120 Five bucks, five dollars. You've got twenty gigabytes of online storage. 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.760 Office Live they give you five gigabytes a storage with 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.639 an Office Live account, so which you know, it's just 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:42.239 like having any other kind of live account. Um, so 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:46.520 that's free to sign that up to. So there's online 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:48.400 storage has gotten to the point where you're you're essentially 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:52.440 the message they're sending is storage is cheap. It is cheap. 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:54.840 Now you have to worry about how secure it is 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:58.239 and how accessible it is because if something happens with 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:02.000 either of those services, like if you're a Microsoft customer 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:03.920 and they have a problem with their servers, you may 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:05.919 not be able to access your files, just like if 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:08.359 you were a Google customer. That's happened a couple of 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:10.920 times in the past year where Google services kind of 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:14.440 took a little dive briefly and people freaked out because 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.479 they couldn't access their Gmail or Google docs. Um well, 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:21.119 there are machines, and machines break and they are vulnerable 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:25.240 to hacking attacks. Now, in general, these companies put a 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:29.000 lot of money into keeping their their applications secure and 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.080 the data secure. But at the same time they're also 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:36.320 huge targets, so they may be more secure than your 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:39.680 native company. Let's say that your native company has got 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:43.120 you know, maybe a hundred fifty employees total, and so 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:45.639 that's a much smaller company than something like Microsoft or 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:50.240 Google orders a magnitude smaller UH. And so let's say 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:54.480 that your company's security isn't anywhere near Google's security or 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:57.479 Microsoft security. But at the same time, you're under the radar. 0:21:58.160 --> 0:21:59.720 You know, you're not going to be a huge target 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:02.840 for ackers like Microsoft or Google. So that's something that 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:06.760 companies and individuals have to take into consideration. Um we 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:12.880 recently saw an issue where in another country people had 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:17.720 their information compromised because hackers attacked Google. And in this case, 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:21.399 it was just account information. It wasn't specific things like 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:25.240