JotSpot，是什么尤物？（Google收购JotSpot）

"JotSpot的产品正是一个基于 wiki应用的平台。例如，目前该公司拥有的产品——可以多人编辑的在线表格和日程表。

该公司的业务是将其wiki系统作为建站协同软件销售给企业客户。Wiki相对于大规模文件管理系统而言是一种轻量级的变通选择，拥有广阔的商业机会。该公司今年早些时候曾与eBay签署了一项协议，eBay选择了JotSpot的平台来运行其用户成员wiki。

Kraus说成为Google 一部分的首要任务是将JotSpot的软件纳入Google软件建构之中。在周二早晨的记者招待会上，Kraus表示JotSpot 的团队将努力将其软件系统与 Google当前的在线应用服务整合起来。

"我们看到在JotSpot和Google之间存在着许多机会，就象Writely和Google Spreadsheet一样，我不能说的太多，但显而易见，这种结合会催生一系列最棒的产品。"

Google也将帮助JotSpot拓展其用户使wiki得到更为广泛的应用，他说“我们的目标一直是将这一技术带给更多的用户，但要实现这一点，再没有比跟Google合作更好的办法了。”

JotSpot被收购后，纳入Google的服务将被重新命名为“G-Spot”

Web Office是目前互联网业界关注的一个焦点，而Web Office与Wiki的结合，则无疑会促成开放式在线办公系统诞生，其开放性、协同性和便捷性将进一步颠覆我们的互联网应用体验。我们看到Google 在这一领域已经展开大刀阔斧的动作。通过对Writely和JotSpot的收购，Google将进一步对以PC和桌面为基础奠定垄断地位的微软发起挑 战。 "

以上引用自：
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/53f36050010005xm 

话说JotSpot是一个什么样的服务？以前我寻求免费wiki时，曾经在上面注册了一个空间：http://bingleteam.jot.com
这个wiki提供了比较丰富的权限级别，比较适合有任何保密需求和权限级别需求的团队使用。wiki、to-do-list、calendar、spreadsheets、photopages、file cabinets等服务，JotSpot的战略：
JotSpot目前定位仍然主要是Wiki服务，但在未来5-10年中则没有必要限制于此。JotSpot并不直接定位为一个Web Office Suite的原因在于他们认为，微软迟早要进入Web Office Suite这个市场，因而要采取不同的wiki/office混合的服务模式，从而保持对峙强大竞争对手的足够竞争力。JotSpot的战略是“embrace and extend the space"，是既要具备office的功能，也要扩展之。这也是其加入Google的原因，从而可借助Google在全球所拥有的有形和无形资源。


下面这篇关于JotSpot的访谈，叙述了其embrace and extend的战略。

http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=140

March 15, 2006

Embracing and Extending Microsoft: JotSpot’s Joe Kraus on the Web Office

Posted by Richard MacManus @ 1:01 am

I recently spoke to JotSpot CEO Joe Kraus, who you may recall was a co-founder of 90’s search engine and portal Excite. Embrace Excel, don’t force people to think differently. But then extend it… After discussing JotSpot’s new vertical wiki products (separate write-up here), we talked about the Web Office - and how JotSpot aims to "embrace and extend" some of Microsoft’s office products. At the end of this post, I do a bit of ‘extending’ of my own and bring Google into the picture.

In my Web Office Suite round-up a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned JotSpot Tracker as one of the contenders in the online spreadsheet category. I asked Joe to tell me the premise behind JotSpot and what he hopes to achieve with an online spreadsheet product. The aim, Joe said, is for JotSpot Tracker to "embrace and extend Excel". He explained:

"Our goal wasn’t just to build Excel online. In fact I believe that Excel will be ‘Excel Online’. Microsoft isn’t dumb and they get this revolution about ’software as a service’ much more than they got the Internet revolution. They’re getting it much more quickly. So we believe where Tracker is headed is not only to embrace the capabilities of Excel - you’ve got to do that. But you’ve also got to extend it beyond what Excel is currently envisioned as today, in order to provide lasting value. Because otherwise I think you’re going to get your lunch eaten, over time as Microsoft rolls in."

Embracing Excel

Joe Kraus at the Web 2.0 Conference, with Kim Polese

Joe then outlined how JotSpot Tracker came about and how firstly it embraces the capabilities of Excel:

"Half the usage of Excel is to track stuff. It’s not about tons of formulas or complicated calculations, but ‘I have a list of things that I want to track, I have a team of people I’m trying to co-ordinate’. For example sending a spreadsheet to your team for them to update the rows - then they send it back. We saw that use case hugely [in their research]."

Joe told me that lots of business people use Excel for CRM and project management, so the ‘tracking’ aspect is key to Excel usage in the workplace. An online spreadsheet then must ‘embrace’ as much as possible of this existing functionality of Microsoft Excel. Said Joe: "We try to operate as much like Excel as possible within the confines of this grid [meaning the online grid layout of JotSpot Tracker]."

Extending Excel to the Web

JotSpot then attempted to extend Excel’s basic functionality in 3 ways:

1) Sharing - making spreadsheets available to people as either read/write or read only.

2) Every row is a wiki page - essentially meaning each row accommodates rich data types and has things such as version control; and

3) the ability to mashup data from your own hard drive with data on the Web. As Joe put it: "connecting your spreadsheet to the Web is really the idea."

 

MS Word and online word processing

I asked Joe Kraus if JotSpot has any plans to move into the online word processing market? After all, a wiki isn’t that far removed from an online word processing system. But he is skeptical of that market, saying that "any place that you can’t add value beyond just the simple fact that it’s online and shared, I think is a risky proposition from a long-term business point-of-view." Moreover, the specter of Microsoft looms large over online word processing, in Joe’s opinion:

"Microsoft is smart on this one and I think they’re going to do some interesting stuff [in the online Office space] - especially with Word."

So no Web Office Suite then?

While it’s not a stretch to imagine JotSpot covering all the Web Office tools in a suite of their own, this idea was pooh-poohed by Joe Kraus. Their vision is for DIY applications, rather than an office suite. Going back to the Excel/JotSpot Tracker example, Joe explained:

"I think the biggest proxy for people building applications today is what they do in Excel. It has many of the characteristics of a networked application - it’s got data in it, the data is structured, it’s networked (in that I send it out over email). People are building networked applications and they don’t even know it. So the idea is - can we enable them to do just a little bit more…"

In the case of an online spreadsheet app, upcoming ‘extensions’ to JotSpot Tracker are notifications/alerts and ‘views’ (i.e. security and who is allowed to view or edit a spreadsheet or its rows). These are features that will extend the Web application functionality of Tracker.

The Embrace and Extend model

Joe summed up the Embrace and Extend model:

"Embrace Excel, don’t force people to think differently. But then extend it into what people are really trying to do in Excel, which is building an application. That’s the direction that Tracker is heading."

It is ironic that the ‘embrace and extend’ way of thinking is being used against Microsoft in this era of computing, albeit indirectly in the case of JotSpot. But you can be sure that bigger fish like Google will in time directly challenge Microsoft’s supremacy of Office computing products, with the Web version of ‘Embrace and Extend’. A lot of pundits have been quick to downplay Google’s acquisition of Writely last week - and perhaps from a pure product angle they’re correct. But look at the bigger picture and you’ll see that web-based Office products can extend the functionality of desktop office products in many useful ways.

Joe Kraus recognizes the value of networked office applications, even if he’s not willing to challenge Microsoft’s near monopoly. Actually I too expect Microsoft to fully meet the challenges facing them in the (not too distant) future. Their ’software as a service’ and ‘Live’ strategies are all about ensuring that if anyone is to extend office products to the Web, it’s going to be them! The only question is: will Google let them? At the Web 2.0 Conference last October, Sergey Brin was asked whether Google will do a ‘Google Office’. Brin’s reply, as recorded by Dan Farber:

"I don’t really think that the thing is to take a previous generation of technology and port them directly, and say can we do the minicomputer on the Web on AJAX makes sense. I’m not saying that’s what [Microsoft] Office is, I’m just saying that I think the Web and Web 2.0, if that’s what you want to call it, gives you the opportunity to do new and better things than the Office package and more. We don’t have any plans [to do an office suite]."
(emphasis mine)

Personally I think you can ignore the last sentence :-) The one I bolded makes it abundantly clear that Sergey Brin was saying then pretty much what Joe Kraus explained to me recently - it’s all about embracing and extending office products for the Web.