A couple days ago I wrote a post about Zoho, which is an excellent productivity tool. While using Splashtop yesterday, I spent some time creating an office document in Google Docs, Zoho’s formidable competitor in the online productivity space. Google’s ability to create an amazing web product is, of course, legendary. Let’s explore Google Docs…

When you first get to Google Docs, you’ll see a central document storage area. This makes sense as the launching point for your productivity experience should be your stored docs. Where Zoho has a multiplicity of productivity tools, Google has three - Documents, Spreadsheets and Presentations. Your documents get to Google Docs in a few different ways. First, if you use Gmail and get an attachment, you have the ability to open it in Google Docs and then it is automatically saved in your central storage area. Next, you can upload a document into Google Docs from your traditional OS. This is the way Splashtop users will generally upload their documents as there is currently no hard drive access from Splashtop. One limitation is that you can only upload a file under 500K. This might be a difficult limitation in the Presentation application where image-heavy files are a bit larger. Finally, you can create a new document right from the Google Docs central document storage area.

Here we’ve opened a document in Google Docs and have chosen the “edit” tab. You can see that this fairly streamlined user interface has most of the tools you would want to create and/or edit a doc. I find the revisions tab particularly useful as it allows you to revert to older versions of your doc.

Spreadsheets in Google Docs are fantastic. Plenty of features here, even for the most demanding users. Sure, it does all the things you would expect it to do, but, there is one feature it has that I think is killer: you can chat while you’re collaborating on a spreadsheet. This is the perfect place for chat functionality because explaining numbers in a spreadsheet and getting everyone on the same page can be cumbersome.

So there you have it - a couple more productivity tools to add to your list of web apps that can help you make the most out of Splashtop. With tools like this, getting on the web seconds after you hit the power button can be a lot more powerful than you might think. In this case it means seconds to edit a document, spreadsheet or presentation. Isn’t that the way it should be?

This morning, still wired from our exciting week, I was checking Google Alerts on Splashtop. There were a lot of links to blog posts where authors tried to position Splashtop in different ways. There were even more comments where readers speculated how Splashtop could become an OS. After all, Splashtop is based, in part, on Linux and there are lots of programs that run in the Linux environment. Naturally, readers have been requesting programs like OpenOffice, Thunderbird, Evolution, and Pidgin.

On the other side of the coin, a lot of folks have been asking us about our web browser, which is an optimized version of Firefox for our platform. Which plugins will you support? Is this going to become a WebOS? One posting asked if you can open documents in Google Docs and chat in Meebo why would you need any other platform-based apps? All of these are great questions.

OEMs and Manufacturers have specific requirements for us depending on the implementation. In the case of our first release with Asus, it was a web browser and Skype. In future implementations it might be media playback or diagnostic tools. We definitely see ourselves as an instant-on environment and not a traditional OS. Supporting a world of applications like Linux, Windows or OSX takes years of development.

We think the real opportunity is to get people where they want to go quickly and efficiently. On or Off, with nothing in between. We’d like to allow customers to add applications to the system and plugins to their web browser. But, we don’t see ourselves becoming a traditional OS competitor. Splashtop is a great companion to a traditional OS. Need to grab a quick map? Splashtop. Want to show your buddy a funny movie on YouTube? Splashtop. Have to edit a photo with some crazy liquid effect in Photoshop? Traditional OS.

For Splashtop to succeed, we have to be nimble and work with a variety of companies. As a small startup, we need to be able to partner with those who work on and support traditional Operating Systems. The same is true for our desire to collaborate with independent developers who can add significant value to Splashtop. We are quite simply focused on bringing value to consumers.

Well, my dog, Ernie (pictured below) is whining to go for a quick goodnight walk. Have a great Sunday wherever you are.

This has been an incredibly exciting week at DeviceVM. For months we have been meeting, planning and developing. How would Splashtop be received? On Saturday a story appeared on Phoronix about Splashtop. From that moment on, the inquiries came rolling in. Hundreds of blogs picked up on Splashtop, publications began calling us and we began an impromptu roadshow to see many influential members of the press, giving them demonstrations on newly built machines with the Asus P5E3 Deluxe Wifi/AP motherboard.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive. The benefits of being able to quickly get on the internet and access your favorite web applications struck a chord with a lot of reviewers who are tired of long boot times. My personal highlight of the week was presenting at the Engadget Reader Meetup in SF on Wednesday night. Talking to consumers gave us all a greater perspective on the opportunity we have. But, we have a long way to go.

Part of my job is to collect all of the suggestions either given in person, on this blog or in commentary on other blogs. Here are the top 5 (not all) of the most requested future features:

1. A Linux-based system for updating
2. Hard Drive access
3. Splashtop on other devices (USB Flash Drive, Notebooks)
4. Booting Windows in the background
5. The ability to develop/add additional applications (media player highly requested)

This feedback is appreciated and gives us excellent direction. If you’re reading this and feel like one of the five is more important than the other four, leave me a comment and let me know. It’s raining here in San Jose (picture below is out the office window). Hopefully it will clear up soon so I can get some outside time. Have a great weekend!