The Top Ranking Websites – What they All Have in Common

Posted on May 15, 2007 by Christine

Take a look at Complete.com’s graph of the top 20 US websites.  Do you notice a common element between them all?

 Top 20 US Websites

Every single one of these websites offers a way for users to be interactive with the site.  Interactivity allows visitors to become engaged in the website, not just passive bystanders. 

It’s not just the US that’s producing popular interactive websites.  Holding the #1 spot on the Alexa Mover’s and Shakers list is a Spanish language photo sharing site called flodeo, up 1496 spots on Alexa from 1781 to 285.

Flodeo

The take-away?  Add some interactivity to your website and start engaging visitors rather than just talking at them. 

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No Longer Just Googling In Online Apps

Posted on May 11, 2007 by Christine

It’s confirmed that Google is doing much more than just dabbling in online apps, they are now entering into the web based apps space with full Google force.  The new tagline says it all:

Search, Ads and Apps

Over the last year, Google has consumed the company’s Writely (creators of a web based word processor app), iRows (web based spreadsheet app), and most recently Tonic (web base slide show app).

Just the other week, a representative from Google said their goal wasn’t to go head to head with Microsoft in the office application world, but based on its new tagline, it appears that this is exactly what Google is doing.

Google will offer the web based office-type apps for free to the regular user and will license use for a fee to companies.  Yay!  That’s one way to cut down on pirated software.  Let’s face it – it’s difficult for the average user to pay the steep price for Microsoft Office. 

Will Google overtake Microsoft?  That remains to be seen.  The downside to web apps is that they are currently much slower than desktop apps – however much more convenient, useful, and now free. 

Posted in Google, Microsoft, online applications, Web 2.0, web apps | 1 Comment

Outsourcing to Eastern Europe Expected to Grow 28% over the next 3 years

Posted on May 10, 2007 by Christine

software outsourcingEastern Europe has become a place of key interest for those looking to outsource software development. Not only is there a large population of tech-savvy developers, but the price is right and the culture of US and Eastern Europe is a good fit.

The New York Times writes:

What is unusual about Eastern and Central Europe is that their most advanced cities offer a potent mix of attributes that even Bangalore cannot rival: a highly educated, multilingual pool of talent in an increasingly affluent consumer market — all barely a stone’s throw from its prime clients.

Currently, Eastern Europe accounts for approximately 2% of the total $75 billion US outsourcing industry, but Robert Brown, an outsourcing analyst at Gartner Dataquest, says that he expect that Eastern Europe’s share will grow to 30% by 2010.

Currently, India believes it can take 50% of the outsourcing this year with China following close behind. Experts see outsourcing continuing to grow while the countries that provide outsourcing shift in percentage of work handled.

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Microsoft Green with Envy Over Apple’s iPhone?

Posted on May 9, 2007 by Christine

Apple’s new iPhone is still a month or more from release, and already Microsoft is making public statements that the iPhone “lacks business savvy.”   

Why?  According to an article published on ZD Net, a Microsoft exec is quoted as saying:

“Apple’s soon-to-be-launched iPhone will be irrelevant to business users because it is a ‘closed device’ and does not support Microsoft Office.”

According Apple enthusiast AJ at Marketcircle, the iPhone is “the best small business phone out there. The reason: It’s flipping easy to use!”

It’s understandable that Microsoft is a little defensive.  After all the software giant’s new Zune music player has bombed in comparison to the iPod, and replicas of it’s Office applications are being distributed for free by Google, the company that destroyed them in the search arena. 

Apple iPhone

Regardless of what Microsoft has to say, there are hordes of people early anticipating the release of the iPhone.  The fact that you can’t open all Microsoft Office documents might limit some sales to Microsoft driven companies, or it may just convince them to switch to Mac!

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Microsoft to Take a Stab at Pay to Play Software

Posted on May 8, 2007 by Christine

Microsoft, the company that has made its fortune selling software, has finally accepted what the rest of the technology world has seen coming for quite some time.  The future of software is SaaS (Software as a Service) – pay as you go use of software as opposed to paying expensive up-front costs for static boxed software.   

Well, sort of.  The company is still clinging to the desktop model, trying to redefine SaaS as “a combination of desktop software and web-based widgetry” and referring to it often as “software plus service.”

Some of today’s most successful players in the world of Software as a Service are progressive companies like SalesForce.com, the CRM giant, and 37 Signals, creators of Basecamp and other shared project management applications. 

Microsoft’s Silverlight technology (the competitor of Adobe Flash) is the first of what they say will be other SaaS-type applications.  Steve Balmer says that Microsoft’s SaaS strategy may include a new round of acquisitions – potentially very large ones.    

Posted in CRM Software, Microsoft, online applications, Web 2.0 | Leave a comment