Speaking of services -- Box.net and OpenBox

I've been discussing the recent phenomenon of companies making their Internet-based services available as services  -- that is, accessible via other interfaces rather than strictly through the customers' websites. One really interesting example of this is Box.net, a data storage service.

One of Box.net's interns emailed me a few days ago in response to previous discussions and suggested that I take a look at their Facebook app. It's interesting in itself, but I'm more interested in the broad interoperability that Box provides. These include:

• Mobile access. "Box.net gives you access anywhere to your documents, photos, and files from any mobile device with a web browser." Among other things, this provides competition with GDocs' mobile viewing capability, which I use all the time.
  
• Document editing. "Box.net has integrated Zoho, a leading provider of online document editing. Now, instead of having to re-upload a new version of a document with changes, simply edit documents online. Online Word document or Excel spreadsheet editing is now possible. All you have to do is right-click on the document and select 'Edit Document.'" Zoho is one of Google's main competitors in the online office arena, and leveraging their ability seems like a smart move for both companies.
  
• OpenBox services. "With the new OpenBox Services, you can bring the power of web applications directly into your existing Box account. Edit photos and images online with Picnik, work on your Word and Excel files using Zoho, publish documents for the whole world to see through Scribd, send your documents signed with EchoSign, and much more." Again, this interlinking of independent services provides a challenge to Google, which has attempted to keep all of these services under one roof.
  

Yes, I keep bringing up Google, which is on my mind a lot these days. Of course, Google is unveiling its own online storage service. It'll be interesting to see how the competition develops.

Box.net - Free Online File Storage, Internet File Sharing, Online Storage, Access Documents & Files Anywhere, Backup Data, Send Files

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