Raju has something called “bubbles” running where Zoho behaves sort of like a desktop app, with presence on the system tray, desktop etc. It even provides drag and drop of documents from the desktop into Zoho…

He can show that to you. We will release it as soon as we complete testing.

-Sridhar

I like your ideas, very creative.

I think the Zoho folks should provide such icons indeed.

Thank you for the feedback, much appreciated.

Here is an idea I think Zoho and all Web 2.0 applications providers should consider. By habit, I’m used to clicking Microsoft icons on my desktop or the Quick Launch toolbar to launch office applications. Once I realized this, I created Zoho icons for each Zoho application I use, and put them on my desktop and on my browser toolbar. I created the icons using Roboform, which also allows me to log in automatically if I so desire (which I usually do).

Now launching desktop applications and logging onto web-based applications are one and the same. Some Web 2.0 companies have already implemented this, such as Box.net’s Firefox browser button. Of course, there are a couple Zoho products (Zoho Planner and Zoho Creator) that are Firefox home page tabs, which I stay logged into indefinetly.

Actually, Office 1.0 will in fact end! And soon.

For one, Microsoft themselves will let go of Office 1.0 due to the Office 2.0 advantages you mentioned. In addition, high speed Internet, which makes the whole Office 2.0 revolution possible, is leveling the playing field. And this allows companies like Zoho to compete.

Personally, I give the upper hand to Zoho due to their company slogan, which if I’m not mistaken has something to do with actually listening to its customers… Something we all know Microsoft knows absolutely nothing about!

Thanks for the excellent analysis and the support. While the road ahead is going to be hard and challenging, we are comfortable with where we are. We are a real business, with vibrant growth, and we have the ability to invest adequate resources to offer a credible suite of online productivity applications. The key is the long term business model, where I apply the dictum “Take care of the downside, and the upside will take care of itself”.

We will heed your advice, and get Zoho Virtual Office out as a hosted service just as soon as we could have it thoroughly tested on our grid.

Thanks.

-Sridhar

You hit the nail on the head. I don’t think I would have explained this better than you did. We are really working hard on the Zoho Virtual Office release.

-Raju