Central Desktop
Encyclopedia
Central Desktop, Inc. is a privately held collaboration software company that is headquartered in Pasadena, California. The company's primary focus is providing a Software-as-a-Service collaboration tool to small and medium-sized businesses. The company and its products are most often compared to other wiki-based and project-centric solutions such as SharePoint and Basecamp
. As of February 2009, the company serves more than 375,000 users worldwide with customers such as Gymboree, Nielsen, CBS
, The Ritz-Carlton
, Netflix
and Harvard University
.
In December 2006, the company accused Google
of unfairly competing against its own customers by bidding on keywords that Google held an interest in. Google responded to the accusations on its own AdWords
blog.
Central Desktop received $7 million in first round funding from OpenView Venture Partners in April 2008.
In February 2010, the company released version 2.0 of its software, Central Desktop 2.0. New features in Central Desktop 2.0 include an online file viewer that supports more than 200 different file types, improved wiki navigation and the ability to convert any file type into a downloadable PDF document.
Central Desktop product features include:
Basecamp (software)
Basecamp is a web-based project-management tool developed by 37signals and launched in 2004. The Ruby on Rails framework was extracted from the Basecamp project.-Features:...
. As of February 2009, the company serves more than 375,000 users worldwide with customers such as Gymboree, Nielsen, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, The Ritz-Carlton
Ritz-Carlton
The Ritz-Carlton is a brand of luxury hotels and resorts with 75 properties located in major cities and resorts in 24 countries worldwide...
, Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
and Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
History
The company was founded by CEO Isaac Garcia and CTO Arnulf Hsu in 2005. Prior to founding Central Desktop, Isaac and Arnulf started Upgradebase in 1997, a product data provider to the computer and consumer electronics industry, and Vendorbase in 1999, a B2B marketplace for computer resellers. Both companies were acquired by CNET Networks in 2002.In December 2006, the company accused Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
of unfairly competing against its own customers by bidding on keywords that Google held an interest in. Google responded to the accusations on its own AdWords
AdWords
Google AdWords is Google's main advertising product and main source of revenue. Google's total advertising revenues were USD$28 billion in 2010. AdWords offers pay-per-click advertising, cost-per-thousand advertising, and site-targeted advertising for text, banner, and rich-media ads. The AdWords...
blog.
Central Desktop received $7 million in first round funding from OpenView Venture Partners in April 2008.
Products
Central Desktop is offered in three editions - Workgroup, Enterprise and Community.In February 2010, the company released version 2.0 of its software, Central Desktop 2.0. New features in Central Desktop 2.0 include an online file viewer that supports more than 200 different file types, improved wiki navigation and the ability to convert any file type into a downloadable PDF document.
Central Desktop product features include:
- Wikis
- WYSIWYGWYSIWYGWYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product...
editing - Document management
- Integrated LuceneLuceneApache Lucene is a free/open source information retrieval software library, originally created in Java by Doug Cutting. It is supported by the Apache Software Foundation and is released under the Apache Software License....
search (full text searches for WordMicrosoft WordMicrosoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
, ExcelMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
, PowerPoint and PDF files) - Online documents
- Online spreadsheets
- Task management
- Project management
- Discussion threads
- Online file viewer
- Web conferencingWeb conferencingWeb conferencing refers to a service that allows conferencing events to be shared with remote locations. Most vendors also provide either a recorded copy of an event, or a means for a subscriber to record an event. The service allows information to be shared simultaneously, across geographically...
- Workflow solutions
- MicrobloggingMicrobloggingMicroblogging is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size...
See also
- Comparison of wiki softwareComparison of wiki softwareThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of wiki software packages.-General information:-Target audience:-Features 1:-Features 2:-Installation:-See also:* List of wiki software* List of wikis* Wiki farm...
- List of collaborative software
- Comparison of wiki farmsComparison of wiki farmsThis comparison of wiki farms details notable online services which host wiki-style editable web pages. General characteristics of cost, presence of advertising, licensing, and Alexa rank are compared, as are technical differences in editing, features, wiki engine, multilingual support and syntax...
- Online office suite