Zoho on Facebook: Play Hard, Work Hard?
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Written By Drupad Sil | July 3, 2007 | Share This
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Web Office Suite creator Zoho today announced on its blog that it has launched an application on Facebook.com, allowing users of both sites to work on Zoho documents through their Facebook account.
The move makes Zoho the first office app to launch on Facebook, although with students composing 30% of Zoho’s user base, perhaps the move was inevitable. Users will still need to sign into their Zoho account after signing into Facebook, raising questions about the practicality of the application – why not just sign into Zoho directly? Once signed in, however, users have free access to personal and shared saved documents from their account, as well as the ability to create new documents, spreadsheets, and presentations through Zoho Writer, Sheet, and Show, respectively.
In addition to these features, Zoho users have access to a variety of other tools including Poll, CRM, Creator, and Mail. It seems users won’t be able to access these features through Facebook, but seeing as this is just the first version of Zoho’s app, there is plenty of time to add more features. This variety of tools is why Zoho’s Web Office is widely considered to be the suite to beat, ahead of competitors Google Apps and ThinkFree. In fact, Zoho’s ability to let multiple users simultaneously work on a document has fans swearing by Zoho’s superiority to Microsoft Office as well.
The real question is whether Zoho will have widespread appeal among students, who often have school-issued document sharing programs (e.g. Blackboard) that have the advantage of familiarity to professors. In order to supplant those programs, Zoho will need to prove itself substantially superior. Donna Bogatin at Inside Chatter has a few thoughts on the Zoho-Facebook integration:
Zoho says it is responding to “market” demand; thirty percent of its users are students. Are Facebookers then clamoring to be able to do a two-step Zoho launch process, via Facebook? Zoho itself acknowledges the Zoho-Facebook integration is not optimal, due to the (increasingly apparent) Facebook not-so-open command and control Facebook Apps strategy.
Zoho wants the increased exposure a “presence” on Facebook may bring. While non-student Facebooker Zoho supporters are eagerly befriending Zoho within Facebook, how much actual new student traction will Zoho get for its Writer, Sheet and Show services?
Zoho proudly touts on its homepage that the three applications are 100% Free! Zoho-Facebook then IS a match: Freebie products for penny-pinching students!
For now, we have to wait and see how the application is received on Facebook. As this post went up, Zoho had been added by 288 Facebookers. If the students of today carry this application into the business of tomorrow, there’s no telling how far Zoho will go.
Topics: Social Media |
Drupad : Thanks for writing about the Zoho-Facebook mashup.
We have had an update addressing the most common complaint received - making the sign-in process a bit simpler. No need to login everytime to Zoho inside of Facebook. More updates to come as we improve upon the first version.