Document sharing: scribd vs. thinkfree

Posted on May 8, 2007
Filed Under Online Tools, Venture News |

We tested today Thinkfree.com, a newcomer to document sharing space, so far solely dominated by quickly gaining popularity Scribd. We give credits to Techcrunch for discovery of both sites, definitely both Thinkfree and Scribd had good start after Techcrunch publications.

We uploaded our publication “How To Make A Million Dollars” test to both sides. Both have easy intuitive interface, both are pleasure to use. Scribd was rather slow in converting document to several formats, but they have announcement on site saying that slow conversion is temporary problem. Thinkfree offers also ability to edit Microsoft Office documents online.

Here are embeds of our publication from both sites. It would be interesting to watch and compare number of document views on each site.

Only one annoying thought beats me up, why the hell do we need document sharing? For online backup? - There are zillion online backup sites. As collaboration space? Even more crowded marketplace. My hypothesis - they are good for SEO experts to drop document with backlinks to target site and to trap in nerds by catchy headlines like “How to Make a Million Dollar“. Another possible reason for existance of document sharing sites is the same reason that threatens the very existance of YouTube - copyright violation. By publishing document in violation of its copyright on your own site, you risk Cease and Desist and following suit. By publishing the same document via anonymous account on Scribd you are in a grey area - Scribd covers your ass.

ThinkFree Docs.

Update:

Two more startups are competing for attention of document sharing audience - Edocr and Docstoc.

Comments

4 Responses to “Document sharing: scribd vs. thinkfree”

  1. ThinkFree Blog » The case for ThinkFree Docs on June 5th, 2007 11:54 am

    [...] saw an article on Venture Itch that asks the question “why the hell do we need document sharing?” [...]

  2. Jonathan Crow on June 5th, 2007 11:59 am

    Interesting questions. I just posted the following on my blog at ThinkFree in answer to “why the hell do we need documents sharing?”

    “I saw an article on Venture Itch that asks the question “why the hell do we need document sharing?” First of all, I think we need to differentiate sharing in the way I think this article is talking about from the collaboration that goes on in the creating process. Sharing in this sense is social networking of office documents. The ability to, among other things, publish your document and point people to a place where they can easily view, comment and share it with others.

    First off, in 2005 we re-launched ThinkFree Online. At that time we got a lot of similar questions about the need for an online office suite. After Google got into the game in 2006 we felt a little vindicated, not to say that these situations are completely analogous. But, let me build the case for social networking of office documents. Right now I think that both Scribd and ThinkFree Docs are in their infancy. There are a lot of interesting things people can and are doing. For example, people are publishing presentations they give at conferences so that people can view the slides when they get back to the office. Putting the document online actually offers the creator greater control over the document in that by choosing to license the document as “all rights reserved” the file cannot be downloaded or modified. Another example is that some teachers have assigned homework through ThinkFree Docs. The students can then copy the file to their ThinkFree Online account, complete the homework, and submit using the collaboration feature to “share” the file with the teacher.

    But, as I said I think these services have a ways to go, and here is where I think they get really interesting. Right now there are a number of tools for collaboration of documents. But none of these tools offers a rich context for discussion of the document. Sure, you can comment and tag, but these features are limited. There are other tools – wikis, blogs, forums – that offer the ability to have complex discussions, but lack the collaborative tools for editing documents. We need to build something that allows the ability to include documents in an intuitive integral way within a rich discussion of a subject.

    The next issue is then that in order for these conversations to be more inclusive we have to provide a place where people feel comfortable to say whatever it is they want to say, and really build that sense of community. Some people will feel comfortable doing it in the wide open landscape we currently have. Others will feel the need to have, in essence, walls around their particular garden. We need to provide a structure around which groups, themes, identities can be developed. When everything is open and unstructured I think there is the fear of the blank page. Within this structure people will be a lot more interested in contributing, and have a better understanding of how their contributions will add to that particular community.

    This is what we are looking to achieve with ThinkFree Docs. And to be honest, we need your help. Please tell us how you would like this service to evolve so that we can build this new social networking space for office documents.”

    Thanks,
    Jonathan

  3. Why the hell do we need document sharing? | Venture Itch on June 6th, 2007 4:44 am

    [...] one of our previous articles was a rhethorical question “Why the hell do we need document sharing?”. I’d like to thank Jonathan from ThinkFree who has taken trouble to give detailed [...]

  4. Sam Manishewitz on October 26th, 2007 5:45 am

    I completely agree with Jonathan and it seems each one of these sites has the same problem.
    One site I particularly liked was Openfloodgate.com; I heard then went to check for myself and actually saw a bunch of famous Stanford professors and a couple of high profile people.
    As a script writer, I have copyright concerns too and therefore post often my recent material, but this place looks like a great flourishing community