Zoho Meeting Logo
Portability is often an important aspect of running an application on the web. This means that the best apps are those that can run on different platforms without the need for extra add-ons or plugins. Zoho Meeting (news, site) has recently improved its web interface by implementing a new HTML viewer for online meetings.

Cross-Platform Support

Zoho Meeting has previously been offering its online meeting interface in three formats -- Java, ActiveX and Flash -- in order to support various platforms like Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. However, these come with a disadvantage. While the Flash-based viewer would work even without installing software, it is still dependent on the Flash plugin being present in the system in the first place. ActiveX and Java will likewise require that the concerned runtimes are active.

Zoho Meeting screenshot

Zoho has announced the release of their HTML-based web meeting platform. Running on HTML5, the new meeting viewer will no longer have any software pre-requisites and will not be dependent on the installation of a plugin. This way, online meetings can be held between anyone with an access to a fairly modern browser.

Being an HTML5 application, the new HTML viewer communicates with the browser through its own programming language, which makes things more efficient. The HTML viewer has the following features:

  • Secure, and supports corporate firewalls and proxies because the application runs within the web browser itself;
  • Improved screen refresh rate;
  • Improved interface.

Will it Work on My Browser?

Zoho's HTML viewer will work on any browser that supports the latest HTML5 specification, namely Google Chrome (version 1 up), Mozilla Firefox (version 3 onwards), Internet Explorer 9 and Opera 9.5 or newer.

Zoho offers online meetings, which can be used for anything that requires desktop sharing and conferencing. One-on-one meetings are free, and multi-user meetings are charged US$ 12 per month for up to five participants. The new Zoho HTML Viewer makes it simpler to start and participate in meetings, as no special plugin or application will be required to communicate.