Home page: http://www.peepel.com

Status:

Peepel is a web-based office suite.

Reviewer: Daniel Carrera (10 April 2007)

Review method: Tested some sample documents.

Notes: Peepel competes with Google Docs and similar services. Like Google, Peepel provides both word processing and spreadsheet functionality. Un-like Google, Peepel gives you a “virtual desktop” where you can have several documents open in a single browser window. You can move windows around, maximize, minimize, etc. Peepel has a “Panel” that changes according to the application you are using.

Peepel is still Beta, so it would be unfair to be too picky. The spreadsheet already uses a simplified variation of ODF as its native format, and the Writer component is set to receive ODF support in the coming weeks.

In a conversation with Stephen Kelly from Peepel, he said to me “It [is] our intention to support OpenDocument as our preferred file format. Although this decision was made for a number of reasons, we felt that OpenDocument’s acceptance by the ISO would lead to an increased level of trust between us and our users. This is a goal we are determined to meet and are working towards it presently.“

I did notice some issues when I tested the ODF export on the Fellowship’s ODF Validator, but they don’t look problematic. The development team will take a look. Chatting with Stephen it seems like ODF support is pretty high on their priority list.