Merredith Branscombe

Bloviating live on Buzz Out Loud with @acedtect, @randydeluxe and @raygun01. Join the blovifest at http://cnettv.cnet.com/live/

October 2 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Mostly I like the combination of bloviating and buzzing. I think I have to tune in. - Merredith Branscombe

Erick Schonfeld

The battle for open hits ebooks. Google and Sony Vs Amazon. Who will win? http://www.techcrunch.com/2009...

August 26 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Weird to see Sony on the side of open; but it does make this interesting. - Merredith Branscombe

StSupery

@TorFlo The second glass always helps :D

August 10 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

I'm having a glass of 2006 Firestone Cabernet -- and toasting you. But I'm not sure the second glass *can* get any better. it's pretty great. Here's to you, Rick! - Merredith Branscombe

Zee. to Zee.'s feed, Appetite, TheNextWeb Forum

No matter how many new features Zoho adds to its products, I will never use it because its the ugliest of all web office suites. Agree or disagree? http://www.zoho.com/index.html

July 21 - Comment - Like - Share

Daniel Rowley, LPH™ and his dog P™, Kathy Fitch and 28 other people liked this

Sooooooo disagree. Google Docs? Butt-ass ugly. Zoho, much more functional and it looks like an ap! Love Zoho! - ‘-.-’ Tutivillus Grift

48 more comments

GE chose Zoho. Draw your own conclusions. Prefer MSO on this end, but that's just me - LANjackal

Disagree. I agree it doesn't look very sexy, but it works and is free. - Rutger Blom

Totally disagree. It's clean looking to me. And way better at integration that Google Docs. I can do so much more with Zoho. Best part? If you have a problem, it's usually fixed within a day. I'm *still* waiting for someone from Google to respond to an issue from 2 years ago. - Admiral Anika

No that would be unfair since no one has gotten their hands on it yet. In any case, MS says the UI should be the same as Office's desktop apps. If that's the case, it's got my vote for sure - LANjackal from IM

... if they can pull it off while keeping the app responsive and snappy, that is - LANjackal from IM

wow, i completely disagree with you guys regarding microsoft office online...I feel like Microsoft have still not got the desktop version right, we're going to be years off anything half decent for the web app versions. - Zee.

i just think its still full of bugs, hard to get what you actually want done done...if you check out Apple's iwork, that's much closer to a decent word processing app - Zee.

I used to love Zoho, but then it started acting up a little -- some mysterious bugs, some revisions disappearing, some trouble accessing data -- and I gave up on it. This was probably a year and a half ago. Sounds like maybe those problems are fixed. - Nathan Rein

Online Office Survey: http://bit.ly/BmPwk - Mark Layton

Sorry wrong link. Try it again. - Mark Layton

i have no problem with google docs - Chris Heath

Yeah, same @Chris, but i agree its not the prettiest of apps - Zee.

Zee: You definitely don't have to like MS Office, use what you want. But I'm curious as to exactly what "bugs" you're referring to. There are many criticisms of MS Office, but "buggy" isn't usually one of them. Could you elaborate? - LANjackal from IM

I vote for Office Web - don't write off almost 20 years of UI learnings too quickly. - Daniel Lizio-Katzen

LAN sure, but am on my iPhone at the moment. Will respond properly when back on my comp - Zee. from iPhone

can someone name an ATTRACTIVE online office suite?I use Google Docs just by default. I admit Office 2010 intirigues but I don't expect much from MS. - Leo Laporte from BuddyFeed

I give GDocs props for its simple interface, at least - LANjackal from IM

Agree. Buzzword is nice, but has no desktop version. - Zachary TG

Adobe AIR? *retches, vomits* - LANjackal from IM

Oh I know, I exorcised Gears from my PC earlier this year - LANjackal from IM

+1 - LANjackal from IM

I prefer ThinkFree to either ZoHo or GoogleDocs. Better roundtrip w/MSFT, smarter featureset. - Merredith Branscombe

I think Google Docs is the most straightforward, and integrates with my Google Apps. They need CRM and project management components, though. Zoho has a decent CRM but email integration has been promised but not delivered for a long, long time. Although much maligned, I still gravitate back to Entourage's project center for linking email, calendar events, tasks, files, etc. Will Office or Google add online CRM and project management first? - Steve Wright

I like Zoho--it's good and fast for certain specific tasks. Makes it incredibly easy to deploy a simple db online quickly, for instance. I'm a fan. - Kathy Fitch

I think the children's builiding blocks image is . . .. childish. Google Apps . . . stark. - Jim Adams

Zoho is a real mixture of styles around a central theme, gproducts tend to do the same thing but its a lesser impact theme - definitely a google style to the apps and products. Zoho seems to try to achieve more style and miss, google is minimal but i suppose they can if part of the brand is the simplicity - whitespace as a brand guideline - pjeedai

I wouldn't call Zoho ugly, or even cluttered. It feels like you are using Office imo. Can't wait for the upcoming Google Docs redesign though! - Tomy Thomson

Damn! You hit the hammer right on the spot. Zoho is like a big rip-off of Google products. Although, I do have to say that it has been technically implemented well. - Rohit

Zee - I happen to disagree. BUT, that's just me. That said, I'd love to hear your thoughts about how do you think it'd look better. Rodrigo / Zoho - Rodrigo Vaca

Disagree!!! and disagree more. GDocs is amateur as far as UI is concerned; Zoho might not be "IT" but is it waaay better and have nice and more features than any other web-tools with this level of elegance - Ashish Tiwari

If Zoho is the ugliest, what web office suite looks better? Definitely not Google Docs. - Dusty Edenfield

@Dusty, i definitely think Google Docs looks better...but yeah, above all is Buzzword.com - Zee.

Ok. Forgot about Buzzword. They've got it as far as design. How about features though? Last I checked they were behind Zoho. - Dusty Edenfield

I prefer Zoho to all other office suites. - Ivan Pavlov

Strongly Agree. ..though I've only used the 'Notes' feature. - 'Like' robot (frɐnc)

disagree. I uses google docs because it's well connected with gmail. but I don't think Zoho is ugly. - Orli Yakuel

I am used to using Google Docs, so I find that Zoho does not feel right to me. I almost think it is too cluttered. If I wanted all that I would just use Word (which I do regularly). Offisync really helps for a combo Word/gDocs user. - Sean Brady

I totally agree. - Vince DeGeorge

@Steve Wright, We just announced the Zoho CRM-Mail integration - http://bit.ly/1AS0th. Arvind / Zoho - Arvind

Holden: I was merely referring to the design aspect. If you compare a few of Zoho's offerings on one side and Google Docs and Microsoft Office on the other, I think you might get the picture then. You are right that Zoho has done a lot with Google Gears than Google itself has, and that is something I already commended them for earlier, but my point is that there isn't much innovation from the UI part to enhance user experience, which is where Zoho lacks. - Rohit

Totally disagree, Zoho is by far better than its competitors, Not only its brilliant interface, but also its various applications are amazing. - Tardid

Everybody Knows: You can't be all things to all people. You can't do all things at once. You can't do all things equally well. You can't do all things better than everyone else. "You" applies to Zoho as well. Continue rocking "You".... - Francis.K.Ruben

this is what you see when you login at zoho.com "You are logged into Zoho. You can select the service you need from the list below, or visit https://personal.zoho.com to start." what i understood/expected after looking at personal.zoho.com is a page like iGoogle or netvibes kinda page but the link redirected me to business,zoho.com which is nothing but viewing whole app in an iframe and... more... - naveen

I really didn't like the Zoho.com page it looks really amateur and i haven't seen a site where block heading center aligned and in a serif font, smaller than contents. Looks like some school kid designed the site. Blue ball like bullet points really SUCKS!!! Twitter and Facebook logos are as big as company logo and untitled press/customer testimonial column. Different fonts and very early 90's look - naveen

LMAO @Naveen. Those products most certainly do not do the same thing as evidenced by their names. Planner is entirely different that Projects. That's like saying Notepad is the same as PowerPoint. - Admiral Anika

disagree, Zoho is much better than Google Docs, just doesn't have the PR/name recognition of Google! - Brian from BuddyFeed

@LAMO what i'm trying to say is if they integrate all those Almost same but different apps as one it will be a killer and can give options to user to turn-on/off few features. - naveen

I heard that some developer designed www.zoho.com not a designer though they have a lead designer who don't have any clue whats going on.... - naveen

update: lead designer + manager (who ever reviewed the design) = amateur - naveen

Jason Goldberg

These days, if a news site makes me register or login before reading the article i just pass on it and move on.

July 21 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

dannystaple, Daniel Rowley, Caermon Durgae and 54 other people liked this

or google cache - alex

11 more comments

Same - Zachary TG

Awesome. I'll read it for you then. - Merredith Branscombe

Ditto. Why put up barriers for others to see your cool content? Let them get a taste of it and maybe they'll subscribe after they realize they can't live without you. - Irene Koehler

Of course - Brendhan Givens

amen; you want my eyeballs they are there if no registration - wowfreeze.blogspot.com

Me too - Carlos Leiva Burotto from fftogo

Same goes for blogs that make you register before commenting - uhh, no thanks, I'll go where there's a real community. - Danny Brown

It's normally that - or a reverse-Turing test, and those are painful. - Tim Tyler

There's always bugmenot.com. - Jari Hakkarainen

Just google it: many online newspapers require to pay when you access the article directly or from their website but are free "from Google". Example: http://online.wsj.com/article... (link available on their homepage right now) vs. http://www.google.com/search... (click the first organic result). And those newspapers blame Google for stealing their content! Ah! - Jérôme Flipo

More here http://googlenewsblog.blogspot.com/2007... and here http://www.google.com/support... - Jérôme Flipo

I avoid it but If I really need to read it than the above mentioned methods work fine. - ashish

Dave Morin

Micheal Jackson died?

June 25 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Um, yup -- http://bit.ly/3ZeOc -- and all the editors who were getting ready to run Farrah stories are now rushing to write Michael stories. It seems a bit surreal; and Twitter I'm sure is lighting up. - Merredith Branscombe

Ron Hudson

#hpreveal is filtering the stream to only show positive comments.

June 22 - Comment - Like - Share

Really? That's a quick way to lose credibility. Disappointing. Sure, filter out trolls, but... too bad. - Merredith Branscombe

Eduify: JulietteJuliette

Use this word in a sentence: Foofaraw. foo⋅fa⋅raw [foo-fuh-raw] –noun 1. a great fuss or disturbance about something very insignificant. 2. an excessive amount of decoration or ornamentation, as on a piece of clothing, a building, etc.

May 14 - Comment - Like - Share

dan merritts and Garin Kilpatrick liked this

The man at the table next to us made a great foofaraw about how his steak was undercooked, but he refused to send it back to the kitchen! - Garin Kilpatrick

Rush Limbaugh's minions kicked up a doozy of a foofaraw after Wanda Sykes dared to insult their hero during a comedic roast at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. - Merredith Branscombe

Corvida

What's URL shortener do you use?

May 6 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Wayne Sutton, Jonas Anderson and (jeff)isageek liked this

I use bacn.me - (jeff)isageek

11 more comments

bit.ly for some reason. I started using Tinyurl. I can't remember why I switched.... - Jonas Anderson

I found twurl good for the feedburner-type tracking features - Nicholas Paul Gordon from Nambu

I use bit.ly - I like the ability to go back and recapture URLs if I need them. It's like a time capsule. I used to use is.gd, but its functionality changed and I went back to bit.ly. - Merredith Branscombe

bit.ly - Sally Church

I'm still using good old TinyURL, it's integrated in my browser and I never bothered changing it... - Christian DE NEEF

I use tr.im, because Safari140 uses it. - Larry Hudson

bit.ly & idek.net - Wayne Sutton

burnURL and bit.ly - Joe Dawson

I use tr.im - Jay

idek.net - Angela

Bit.ly - Kate

now s1w.us - Wayne Sutton

Mark Evans

New tech blog, FeedtoFocus.tv. Get short one minute market intell videos on VC, Social Media, and Online Advert. www.feedtofocus.tv

March 30 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Jim Turner, Tyson Key, Matt Weeks and Cathryn Hrudicka liked this

This is the concept behind a new startup, Lunch.com -- if a review is valuable, how much more valuable would it be with the power of the social graph behind it... or from someone who is like *you?* - Merredith Branscombe

Merredith, Thanks for your comment; checked out Lunch, interesting. - Mark Evans

Don't forget to check out my new site at www.socialmediapshere.tv I need to get that other feed to my reader. Just what I need a another feed. Oh well adding to the firehose I drink from I guess. Thanks for letting me know Mark. - Jim Turner

Mark Evans

My full transition to Google Chrome is complete; using it more than any other browser now.

February 19 - Comment - Like - Share

RAPatton liked this

I am still using firefox the most. I still miss addons on Chrome and some pages don't render correctly on it. - Luciano Evaristo Guerche

Yep, missing out on the abundance of addons, will be a bummer for awhile yet to come. And, yes... I do have to toggle back and forth between FF for pages that don't render correctly and other little things... That said, the overall Chrome experience is very good. - Mark Evans

I can't get past the privacy issues w/Chrome, especially since they don't exist on FF; I hope they will be solved eventually. - Merredith Branscombe

Merredith Branscombe › Comments