Zoho Launches Marketplace

September 30, 2008 · Comments

Zoho, the hard working people who have created about a million free web-based applications, a company that every small business looking to cut software costs in 2009 should be looking to for solutions, has opened up a brand new marketplace to accompany the launch of their even-more-functional new Creator 3.0 release. What’s this mean? If you want an application and Zoho hasn’t made it yet, make it yourself.

They released a fun little video to go along with the news:

I’ve long been a fan of what Zoho does, but with this new Marketplace, I get the feeling that we’re going to inch closer to one of my predictions for the future of social networks: velvet rope social platforms.

By this, I mean to say that Facebook won’t cut it in the near future for professional networks. If you and I are journalists, we’ll want to hang out on a site that has tools that make sense to us, alongside our friending features. If we’re realtors or hoteliers, we’ll want tools specific to our trades. If we’re educators, the same.

Tools like these in the marketplace are a great way for us to move even closer towards that future, as I see them potentially extending into use on various social platforms, if you just squint your eyes a bit.

Check out all the cool apps at Zoho Marketplace, and congrats to the team on yet another launch.

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  • Bob
    Chris, thanks for sharing. I'm going to have to check out the new apps on Zoho. I'm glad they are keeping the pressure on their competition.

    Do you really feel that there will continue to be more and more social networks? In my opinion, I can see them getting more granular, but will I really need to have a social network for something I do sparingly, like say play frisbee golf? I'd love to see these walled-gardens open up and play nice across all levels of the web. I wrote an article not too long ago about how I thought Google had acquired or developed enough tools to incorporate social into all aspects of your experience. Picture going to your favorite web page, interacting/commenting/collaborating with your associates via friendfinder, going to google maps and finding a youtube video that your buddy posted about the Rocky Mountains, going to your gmail account and seeing an entire feed of what your pals are up to. Yes, I know some of these are already happening, but it still feels like a disconnect for me. I want social media to work for me, not me having to figure out the best way to adapt to it.
    http://onehalfamazing.com/2008/09/google-creati...

    ~Bob
  • Hey Chris, I'm very interested in Zoho, and we have been discussing web apps in our IT group off and on for a while now. I'm going to revisit this based on your post.

    I think these velvet rope social platforms are already here, and are the product of long years of "evolution", so to speak. I, for instance, belong to the American Chemical Society, or ACS, a professional organization for chemists and the largest collection of individual scientists in the world (last time I checked). They have two national conferences every year, and regional conferences galore, and dozens of weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly publications communicating the latest research in various fields, and an online networking platform, and on and on.

    There are other, similar societies for physicists, microbiologists, and so on. ACS, as well as each of the other groups, had an early lead in adopting RSS for news syndication, incorporating news from diverse industry sources as well as their wealth of print media, into their web presence, and in the process creating cross-platform media experiences with their online/print/conference/broadcast tools.

    In the scientific community (and I'm assuming other professional communities also have organizations like this), this type of networking functionality has been around, and not just online, but in print and in person, for decades. It exists out of necessity -- without it, our ability to innovate would be far less.

    As a scientist, it pays me to adopt the best tool for the job when it is time to communicate, and likewise for other professions, I suppose. As technology continues to provide these tools, I think it is only natural that like-minded professionals utilize them to the fullest for specific needs. It attests to the utility of the tools!
  • The Zoho platform is great and in particular the creator product. I have created a couple things within creator and I must say that my only real beef is that it isn't truly connected with all the other Zoho Apps.
  • Chris : Thanks for taking note of the latest releases from Zoho!

    RStanley : We are indeed working on bringing all the Zoho apps together. For example, Zoho Docs offers an integrated view of Zoho Writer, Sheet & Show. Do email your suggestions to support@zohocreator on how you would like Zoho Creator to be integrated with the other Zoho apps.
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