5 Things to Know about Google Wave (from PC Mag)

With the industry buzzing about Google Wave (and Facebook and Twitter likely rethinking strategy), PC Magazine provides a good overview of things you should know about Google Wave as it approaches release.

Read the Article Here.

Will You Catch the Google Wave?

What if some of the most create web developers decided to rethink email, IM, and Internet communications from scratch? What if they worked for a company with the resources to let them think and create for years? What is you could mix the real-time communication of Twitter and Facebook with the organization of email and contacts?

The answer: Google Wave. Take a sneak peek here.

Google Apps vs. Exchange -- Part 1

Over the past several weeks, the Horizon team has received more questions about the comparison between MS Exchange and Google Apps as a communication and collaboration platform.

Here is a presentation that compares MS Exchange and Google Apps in terms of investment, management, and administration.

There are also many user features in Google Apps that our former Exchange/Outlook users really love. I will share some of these in upcoming posts.

Learning to Live wite "Live Chat"

If you have visited our website since Tuesday morning, you may have noticed the new look and feel, the expanded information about our products and services, and the ability to buy online. You may also have noticed the "Live Chat" feature we have added to the site. Through this feature, we offer pre-sales assistance, customer service, and technical support.

On the back end, the team at Horizon is getting used to be connected in real-time to our current and future customers. So far, the process is engaging and fun, except for the "telephone ring" that blasts when somebody starts a chat.

Valeo Demonstrates That Businesses Trust Google

Google recently announced that Valeo, an "independent industrial group fully focused on the design, production, and sale of components, integrated systems, and modules for cars and trucks," is deploying Google Apps to all 30,000 employees.

Why does this matter?

Industry watchers like Dave Rosenberg see this deal as further validation that companies of all sizes trust Google and Cloud Computing. More important than the cost savings of 50% to 75% over in-house solutions, businesses and non-profits must trust the security, availability, and reliability of the solution.

Google Slowdown Yesterday Morning

Google has officially acknowledged and identified a cause for yesterday mornings "slow down" across all Google services.

Did you experience slow access??

Did you experience a full outage??

SPAM Volume Jumps 1.2% PER DAY in First Quarter

Google Postini Services issued its quarterly Threat Advisory. Even with the dismantling of the McColo Botnet in 2008, the volume of spam is increasing at a daily rate of 1.2%. This compares with a daily increase rate of 1% during the same quarter last year.

If you have spam protection, why does this matter?

If you run in-house spam filtering using Barracuda, GFI, or other appliance or software solutions, the continued increase in spam is hurting your network and system performance. In-house solutions may keep spam out of your inbox, but they do not keep spam from consuming your Internet bandwidth. Many solutions also do not prevent your Email server from wasting resources processing spam messages.

Hosted, or cloud-based, solutions stop spam and viruses before they hurt Internet and email server performance.

Click here if you want to learn more ...

New Leaders in PC Market Indicate Changing Role of Cloud Computing

ChannelWeb, a news source for technology resellers, is reporting that Acer has passed Dell as the #2 maker of notebooks.

Why does this matter? The shift is due to Acer's sale of netbooks.

This shift is a further indication that individuals and SMBs are comfortable with web-based, SaaS, and other cloud-based solutions. Netbooks are designed to optimize performance for web-based applications rather than locally-installed software.

Google Expands Task List Integration to Calendars

One of the unique features of Google Apps has been the ability to turn an email into a Task, allowing you to track follow up and deadlines.

Google has taken Task integration much further with the integration of Tasks into Calendar.

From within Calendar, you can now create tasks with due dates, which will be visible on your daily calendar.

Click Here to learn how to get started and to see some cool screen shots.

Coffee Break: Intro to Google Apps as an Email and Calendar Service

Join Horizon Info Services on May 22nd at 10:15 am ET for an extended mid-morning coffee break and learn why Google Apps Premier Edition may be a better email and calendaring solution for your business than your current hosted email provider or your internal email server. The brief presentation will compare features and cost, with plenty of time for questions.

Attendance is free, but space is limited.

Click Here for More Info

Objective View of Google vs. Microsoft

Twinstrata, the company that sells Clarity AP (assessment and planning) software, conducted a comprehensive study of the costs and risks of Google Apps versus Microsoft Exchange. In his Storage Bits blog, Robin Harris provides a good summary of the results.

Robin's summary explains the stark cost difference -- 20x on capital equipment and 5x to 6x on a 3 year total cost of ownership (TCO). Some of the details warrant clarification.

First, the study narrowed the gap based on the risk of unplanned downtime. MS Exchange, however, requires downtime on a monthly basis (or expensive redundancy configurations), for system and operating system patches and updates. Planned downtime adds to the cost and should be counted when comparing availability given that Google is engineered for zero-downtime.

Second, Google is developing a robust and diverse channel to provide the implementation, migration, integration, and support services identified is lacking in the study. While purchasing through a reseller increases the cost over the direct Google pricing, the value of the services improves the quality, and therefore lowers the cost, of using Google.

While these considerations may change the equation slightly, the business case for Google Apps is valid for many small and mid-size businesses.

Things To Like About Firefox

Those of you that know me, know that I have been using Firefox as my default browser. I still need to use IE for some sites that do not work properly in Firefox. As I use Firefox, there are a few features that seem to make life easier.

• Tab Use Order: I use tabs ... lots of tabs. If I open a new tab, read the content, and close the tab, Firefox returns me to my previous tab. IE defaults to the next tab to the left. Firefox makes it easier to bounce between my inbox and calendar, particularly when other tabs are open.
  
  
• Location Field Lookup: When typing information in the location bar, Firefox searches not only the content of URLs in the cache, but page header and tag information as well. The result, I can reach my inbox entering "mail", "inbox" or a number of other phrases.
  
  
• Ent.Save and Quit: When closing Firefox, I am prompted to save the open tabs before exiting. When I do, the same tabs are present and connected when I next start Firefox. This feature lets get back to work more quickly.
  

Do you have favorite features in IE or Firefox? Post a comment and let us know.

Bored by Forms -- Themes Can Help

Google Forms now include the ability to add themes with background images and color selections.

Learn more here ...

Manage Permissions by Sheet in Google Spreadsheets

Google has enhanced Google Spreadsheets, allowing you to manage who may edit sheets within a workbook.

Learn More ...

Google Acquisition Improves the Image of Google Docs

In 2007, Google purchased a startup called Tonic Systems. The technology from this startup provides the basis image features in Google Docs.

The Insert Drawing feature lets you add drawings, using lines, curves, freehand squiggles, and shapes, directly into your Google Docs.

Click here to learn more about this cool feature.

From the Continuous Improvement Files ...

Over the past several weeks, Google has made a set of minor (but very helpful) changes to Google Apps:

• Arial and Times New Roman fonts are now available in the text editor in Google Docs for users who have these fonts locally installed on their computers
  
  
• In Gmail, you can now view .ppt and .tiff files online, directly in your browser, without a Flash plugin. The viewer can also zoom in and out, select text to copy and paste, and 'print' the presentation to a PDF document
  
  
• Speaker notes are included when uploading a PowerPoint presentation into Google Docs

Google Apps CAN Integrate with Internal Apps

In April, Google announced a secure data connector for Google Apps. With Google Secure Data Connector, employees you specify can interact with authorized data from your on-premise applications within Google Sites, Google Docs and custom App Engine applications, even when employees aren't on your corporate network.

This represents a significant enhancement, available only for Premier and Education Editions.

Learn more ...

Of Swine and Men ...

The reaction to the Swine Flu may be worse than the flu itself. Our sister firm, Horizon Information Group, has some sound advice on the topic here.