iCochise - Zoho Critique
Home Page: http://zoho.com/
Description (copied from their site): Zoho is a suite of online applications (services) that you sign up for and access from our Website. The applications are free for individuals and some have a subscription fee for organizations. Our vision is to provide our customers (individuals, students, educators, non-profits, small and medium sized businesses) with the most comprehensive set of applications available anywhere (breadth); and for those applications to have enough features (depth) to make your user experience worthwhile.
Cost: Zoho has 12 applications that are free and 7 that are available at some cost (which varies by application). For most educators, the 12 free applications will be all that are needed.
Grade: A
Compare With: Google Docs
Critique: Zoho is the very best example of so-called "cloud computing" on the web. ("Cloud computing" is the term used to describe a system where a user's information is stored on the internet and accessed using web-based software.) With Zoho, instructors and students can create and edit many different types of materials online, saving the cost of purchasing expensive software. Additionally, those applications and files are available from any computer connected to the web, so people can work from offices, home, labs, libraries, or wherever they happen to be; even when using public computers. Also, all materials created with Zoho (like written documents and spreadsheets) can be shared for collaborative editing by a team. Zoho will import and export documents in all of the following formats: html, doc, docx, sxw (Open Office), odt, rtf, jpg, gif, png, and text files. Finally, Zoho has a feature that permits people to edit their documents offline and have them automatically updated when an internet connection is available; so instructors going to a conference can work on a presentation in the airport even if they are not connected to the web.
Following is a list of the Zoho applications:
Free Applications: Mail, Writer (Word Processor), Spread Sheet, Show (Presentation Tool), Docs (Online Document Management), Notebook, Wiki, Share (Public Repository), Planner, Chat, DB & Reports, and Marketplace (various "Add on" applications, like Help Desk).
Applications available at some cost: CRM, Projects, Creator (Database Application), Invoice, Meeting (web conferencing system), People (HRIS and Recruitment), and Business (various business applications).
All Zoho applications are very mature and offer many features people expect of a similar installed product. For example, here is a screen capture showing the toolbar in their word processor:
You will notice many of the same capabilities you find in installed word processors, like Word and Open Office. The only missing features are those that are not often used, like mail merge and macros. All of the Zoho applications have more than enough power for the vast majority of instructor or student use.
Compare the Zoho toolbar to the rather anemic one found in Google Docs:
Zoho users are given 10G of disk space, which is shared among all of the documents, email, and other stored materials. This should be sufficient for all but the most space-hungry users. Once the 10G limit is reached, users will need to download some of the older documents and store them offline (i.e. on a local hard drive somewhere).
All-in-all, Zoho is a fine suite of tools and the best available for "cloud computing."