Mike Stopforth

When Google snatched up online collaborative word processor Writely, and followed it up closely with the launch of Google Spreadsheets, my attention was immediately diverted to the startup that would provide the foundation for a powerful, functional web-hosted presentation application.

In our business keynote presentations are not only a revenue stream but a fantastic way to introduce potential consulting opportunities to our way of thinking. We are always developing new presentations, and so the possibility of having a central, web-hosted collaborative platform to develop new products as opposed to creating another mass of emails with huge attachments and various different versions floating backwards and forwards is, well, very nifty.

Here are the three companies that got their feet wet the quickest. I reckon there’ll be many more to come and will be keen to watch Google’s movements closely - my guess is it won’t be long until one of them is sold. Bought. Whatever.

Zoho Show, which compliments existing Zoho web-based office applications Writer (word processor) and Sheet (spreadsheet), offers an intuitive Ajax-y interface which is surprisingly quick. The WYSIWIG editor is self-explanatory and covers the basics for a simple presentation. As an aside, Zoho has a bunch of other nifty office-related, web-hosted applications that are either free or very affordable. Worth checking out.

Next on the list is Empressr.

Empressr claims to have an advantage over the competition because it “goes beyond current presentation applications by enabling you to incorporate rich media features, like streaming video and animation, to create and share the most dynamic presentations possible”. Nice.

However, as I write this Empressr is pissing me off royally with a laborious and conditional sign up process. I have to invite 6 people to Empressr before they’ll let me in. Well bollocks to you then. Come to mention it, signing in to Zoho was a breeze. It was breezier than that. It was a vacuum. A perfect vacuum of unconditional loginness.

So they asked me to tell six friends about Empressr. Here goes:

1. It sucks ‘cos of the login process.
2. It sucks ‘cos of the login process.
3. It sucks ‘cos of the login process.
4. It sucks ‘cos of the login process.
5. It sucks ‘cos of the login process.
6. It sucks ‘cos of the login process.

Moving right along. Thumbstacks.

Thumbstacks is really not all that different looking to Zoho, much the same in terms of navigation, functionality and sharing possibilities. If anything, Thumbstacks is a little more PowerPoint-like. However, for now, Zoho gets my vote. Let me know what you think.

Check out TechCrunch for more detailed reviews on the individual apps.