Software as a Service... Or Is It The Other Way Around?

Filed under: SaaS

These days I try to rely as little as possible on desktop-based software. Moving between an office computer and a laptop that typically need to share a large set of common files, I find that reducing the work involved in keeping my machines up to date is a must.

I use Dropbox to sync files between my Macs as well as with coworkers and clients, Subversion to sync source code between computers and with coworkers, Gmail to sync email, and NetNewsWire to sync my RSS feeds between my Macs and my iPhone, just to name a few.

There have, however, been some points where using SaaS solutions has cost me more time than it was meant to save. For instance, every interaction I have ever had with Google Docs has ended badly for varying reasons. Sometimes important formatting gets lost when importing or exporting from other software. Sometimes documents seem to disappear completely from my account. I have also had a hard time utilizing the built-in rich formatting controls, effectively.

While I have heard plenty of good things about Zoho Writer, I am hesitant to use Zoho products after my experience with Zoho Projects, their project management application. My company used Projects for a while before becoming fed up to the point that we decided to write our own project management application from scratch.

Despite the negatives, there is definitely an important place in my life for web-based software services. I believe that as time goes on these services will continue to expand and evolve to the point where the desktop almost becomes obsolete. Heck, I should have a Google Wave invitation that should be processed within the next day or so. If it lives up to half the hype, we may be even closer than we think!