BBC tech correspondent examines where the Web is headed in Where Next for the Web?

Apparently, it is going to get smarter, ubiquitous, increasingly mobile and largely cloud-based.

The United States government is embracing the cloud computing model in an effort to address its rising IT costs.  US federal CIO Vivek Kundra recently announced the launch of the Apps.gov website where US government agencies can acquire and deploy cloud computing applications.  While sensitive and secret data will continue to be handled by secure government-operated facilities, there is vast potential for savings for Uncle Sam if agencies can leverage low-cost, web-based technologies for routine, non-sensitive applications.

Cloud service infrastructure and application providers like Amazon and Google are certainly eying the public sector market with keen interest. The US government alone spends over $75-billion on IT, for example.  These technology companies are thus working hard to address issues related to the security, privacy, and data management concerns that are typically associated with a move to the cloud computing paradigm.

We have just formally launched our first stand-alone web application – DocuBuzz – an on-demand document management solution specifically designed for small businesses and distributed teams.

The concept for DocuBuzz evolved from our experience in developing custom document & records management solutions for a variety of clients.  In the course of these projects, we realized that the core document management requirements are quite similar across most small businesses.  We also realized that most off-the-shelf solutions were simply not suitable for small businesses – being too expensive, too complex, or both.

DocuBuzz is our attempt to offer an alternative – a simple and affordable document management solution that leverages the benefits of the web-based, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.  The current version of DocuBuzz aims to cover the essential document management needs of most small businesses.

Core features include:

• An intuitive multi-user interface
• Collaborative Notes & Tags
• Full text search with search filters
• Document versioning
• Built-in document viewer
• In-situ link & file sharing with variable shared-link lifetimes
• Flexible folder sharing permissions

Head on over to www.docubuzz.com and activate your fully-functional free trial account to check out DocuBuzz for yourself.  We are extremely eager to hear what you think about it.