
Google launching an Online Presentation App at Web 2.0 - Readmore
http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9709593-2.html?tag=blog
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fraXis
What are you guys thinking? Of course this is another Kiko situation. Google's
new app is going to be the talk of the town when it launches. And Zenter is
not even public yet.

I would think Zenter had a chance if they were already available for public
use, but think about it. They are still closed beta with no customers, etc....

This is a prime example when you have a good idea (such as Zenter) but take
way too long to execute. Zenter should of went from concept to public app in 3
months time. Then they might of had a chance against Google.

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mattculbreth
Ugh. I really hope Zenter doesn't get Kikoed. Hopefully they've got some
additional features over the Google offering.

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gibsonf1
I think Zenter _may_ need to come up with a new idea.

Google has marketing clout and web presence like no other (this is obvious).
They also have incredible staying power, so if I am investing time into using
an application, and I have 2 alternatives that are similar functionally, I
would take the one with the best chance of future survival, and that is
clearly Google. I guess the option they have is to create some amazing
functionality that Google doesn't have in their version, and sell it to Google
_if_ Google's app is any good.

I guess we won't know until Google launches what they have. Zenter - Launch
First and soon!! _Very_ soon.

Btw: At Startup school, a guy from Google asked us about our startup and what
we were doing, etc. It was clear they were looking for ideas there.

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danielha
_"Btw: At Startup school, a guy from Google asked us about our startup and
what we were doing, etc. It was clear they were looking for ideas there."_

That sounds more like an interested hacker from Google who was genuinely
curious about your project (like everyone else there), rather than a planted
corporate development spy itching to report his scoops to home base.

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zaidf
Ideally IF google really wanted to send someone to spy, it would be someone
who is SEEMINGLY a hacker:D

Not that I think google is out of ideas. They probably have too many ideas.

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gibsonf1
Actually, the guy seemed more like a manager/business type than a hacker. The
first thing I asked him was "are you spying for Google", and he hemmed and
hawed actually. He gave no indication at all that he was interested in doing a
startup himself, but wanted to figure out what we were doing.

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Readmore
Google doesn't have managers! Everyone there is 10 feet tall, types 200 words
a minute, codes in a new version of Lisp called GLisp and can beat up Chuck
Norris. You must have been mistaken.

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dawie
Interesting how google announces these days and not just release like before..

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Readmore
This is a big blow to all the online presentation apps just like Google
Calendar was to all the Web 2.0 Calendars. It won't be an 'Office Killer'
however, until all of their apps can work together well. When you can make a
chart in Google Spreadsheets and then copy it into Google Docs or Google
Pres(??) easily. Then we'll have an interesting fight on our hands.

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Harj
YouTube beat Google video by a mile.

Not everything Google does turns to gold.

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veritas
Initial reaction: Zenter is dead in the water even if it has more features.
Google's brand name alone will be enough to propel it to the top and Google
obviously has the technical muscle to make up ground pretty damn fast.

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brlewis
I disagree. Calendars have a large social component; creating presentations
does not. If Zenter has features that appeal to people who create
presentations, then it will do well.

Using the same calendar system others use helps. Using the same presentation
system mostly doesn't.

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brett
That may be true of how people currently use presentation software, but inside
of organizations people share decks and slides very frequently and it's a
pain. Presentation software probably _should_ be highly collaborative even if
existing options are not.

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JMiao
I agree, but how does Google leverage their existing products and promote
collaboration with presentation software? Google Calendar worked because
planning and sharing events/meetings makes sense to be integrated with GMail.

As I've said before, I think this is going to be a different story because,
while collaboration brings a lot of value to presentation software users, I
can't see a killer app that Google can leverage beyond Image Search that would
make their product a must-have. Zenter has done a great job making a connected
presentation app with a very slick Google Search-based image import tool.

Pound for pound, I think Zenter has a fighting chance as long as it keeps
innovating on the feature front. Don't forget that collaborative presentations
will likely give rise to a slide sharing community (i.e. slideshare.net), so
there's more to online presentation software than the app itself.

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JMiao
Weird how I got downmodded for furthering the discussion. I've been noticing a
lot of this in the past week, don't know if it's related to the rush of new
users in the past month. Small thing, but kind of annoying.

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nickb
Zenter guys, launch NOW! Launch as soon as you can! Launch BEFORE Google and
create some buzz before Google launches so that when people see Google's
Presentations, they will think it's old and has been done before.

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ashu
I have no idea what features this app from Google has, but from what I have
seen so far, Zenter kicks ass! It's not about which app has "more" features,
it's about how effectively one can present using such an app.

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omouse
Definitely! Google seems to be over-reaching. They have a lot of apps and many
people just don't know about them. And I thought they were going to
concentrate on _finishing_ apps not creating new ones! big wtf.

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andreyf
The company they aquired:

<http://web.archive.org/web/20060819233054/http://tonicsystems.com/>

"Java PowerPoint® Specialist"?

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Readmore
While it doesn't mean too much that website is pretty bad. Maybe Zenter does
have a chance.

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andreyf
From here: <http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/were-expecting.html>

"Our due date is this summer."

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schoudha
You can't win on brand name alone.

Zenter has some tough competition ahead of it but I'm sure they expected it.

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omouse
If Zenter can be as cool as KeyNote is on OS X, they have nothing to fear from
Google.

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schoudha
I don't think emulating Keynote is the right play. Any online presentation app
should be designed to exploit the inherent advantages that web applications
have, i.e. collaboration, information retrieval, etc..

I don't think the goal is to replace Keynote or Powerpoint but rather provide
software the lets people easily develop bring presentations for a web
audience.

As a former iWork engineer, I think some of the stuff Keynote has can't be
replicated effectively in a web application.

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JMiao
Schoudha's right -- the killer edge for Zenter is making a connected
presentation app that leverages the web. Remember the annoying task of
importing presentation images? Why not make that easier since you're already
in a browser? Things like that.

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jkush
What does this do for zenter.com?

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rokhayakebe
BOy boy. Zenter. I still would not care. Google is just bluffing right now.
And it hurts me how many people cannot see that the big Giant has lost its
way.

