Get Your Head Out of the Clouds

Just when you thought we'd reached the known limits of annoying technology terms, a new specimen has begun to gain traction, putting up a spirited case for the most irritating tech buzzword of the year.

The new candidate, the mind-numbingly awful term "cloud computing," has been in the news this week thanks to the novella published in last Sunday's New York Times business section by Miguel Helft and Steve Lohr, and a cover story in BusinessWeek rhapsodizing about the power of Google's "clouds."

Both stories appear to be part of an organized public relations campaign played to near-perfection by Google's PR maestros.

"Cloud computing" is supposed to refer to "the idea of relying on Web-based applications and storing data in the 'cloud' of the Internet."

But I ask you: Is it a crime to use the term "web-based software," or even "web services"? No, it is not. Still, Helft and Lohr refer to "the cloud" no less than 16 times in their New York Times piece and Stephen Baker's BusinessWeek story includes the word a whopping 41 times.

Donald Leka, the chairman and C.E.O. of Transmedia, an upstart tech firm that offers a suite of web-based services called Glide, told Portfolio.com that in his view, "cloud computing" is little more than a fancy buzzword that could only have been concocted in the brain of a public relations professional.

"It's a PR stunt," Leka said, though he added that the term has been around for years. Only through the best efforts of journalists do such terms achieve wide propagation.

"People couldn't get their heads around the idea of web-based software and services, so someone invented the term 'cloud computing,'" Leka said. "You know, like the servers are up in the clouds..." His voice trailed off.

Web-based software and services are a bonafide technology story, but beyond the tech world, few are even familiar with the concept, despite what the tech blogosphere would like to tell itself.

A recent study found that 73 percent of Americans have never heard of Google Docs--or any other web-based software offering, for that matter. Worse, only one half of one percent of those polled have switched from desktop software to web-based software. As Helft and Lohr point out, Google Docs had 1.6 million users in November. By contrast, Microsoft Windows runs on 500 million computers.

In total, then, "cloud computing" seems to be little more than a fictitious phrase used to refer to a largely fictitious phenomenon.

Meanwhile, web-based software evangelists are pushing ahead.

This week, Leka launched his company's new email offering, Glide Email, which has been garnering good buzz. The service's main selling point: no targeted advertising, a feature that should appeal to the millions of Americans, including yours truly, who detest advertising of any kind.

Leka suggests that most of the millions of people who currently use web-based email have little idea how closely the major tech firms - Google leads the list - are scrutinizing the actual content of their supposedly private emails and crafting sophisticated targeting advertising based on what they write in order to better sell them products they don't need.

Another selling point? Rights management. Users can customize permissions on email attachments to manage who can read the document and how widely it can be forwarded, a feature that should appeal to the millions of Americans who are leery of sending those holiday party photos around, lest they fall into the wrong hands.

Recent history suggests that the internet has drastically increased the risks associated with emailing, uploading, or posting personal content of any kind. It is no exaggeration to say that lives have been upended by web-based information distribution. Still, the public does not seem to have internalized a basic tenet of web sociology: Do not email, upload, or post anything you do not want your mother or boss to see.

As this reality increasingly dawns on people, Transmedia is well-positioned, given that it offers what appear to be industry-leading privacy and rights management controls.

Transmedia has come a long way since Leka first demonstrated the product for me over two years ago, ahead of its launch. Although the company has remained below the radar of the general public, tech observers have been watching Leka and his colleagues and noting the good press the company frequently receives.

The company, which boasts nearly 500,000 users worldwide, is cash-positive and poised for growth, according to Leka. While the user base is currently relatively small, Leka is hoping to tap into consumers growing increasingly knowledgeable--and irate--about the privacy risks associated with email and other web activities.

Meanwhile, the corporate propaganda is flying fast and furious. Google web-based software that no one uses? Facebook targeted advertising that everyone knew about? Non-existent mobile network unlocking? Call the dead-trees media. They'd be happy to oblige.

Indeed, the "cloud computing" incident is symptomatic of a growing epidemic in business journalism that is threatening to rage out of control: desperate reporters who, for the sake of the almighty scoop, are willing to publish just about any nonsense that a public relations professional shovels at them.

So just say yes to ad-free web-based software. And just say no to "cloud computing."

by Sam Gustin