Not long ago, I was at an Industry Insider party at a swanky art bar in downtown San Francisco. (Nice, intimate event, except for the cash bar! Sometimes I miss the boom years. Oh well.) It happened to fall on the evening that Google announced the premium edition of its Google Apps online productivity suite.
The pros and cons of the product was a big topic of conversation, especially with Raju Vegesna of Zoho.com, which makes its own browser-based office suite. We discussed Google’s $50/year pricing (more than free, less than Microsoft), and how Google’s offering will “validate the market.” (Isn’t that what every small company says when a giant competitor muscles in?)
Here’s the interesting part, though. Both Google Apps and the competing Microsoft Office Live Premium both actually store your documents online for you, which is a great convenience, right?
Well, in Google’s case that means they “read” everything you’ve got up there and then most likely try to sell you ads based on its content. (Unless you pay for the Premium version, where they'll just remember it forever and use the info to try to sell you something else down the road.)
That’s nothing though. If Microsoft’s past behavior is any guide, Bill’s boys will slap some nasty DRM on your data, and then try to license it back to you – for use on only one computer at a time!
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