Zoho ups visibility in online app market by opening up to Google, Yahoo

It just got a little more tempting to use startup Zoho‘s suite of online applications — users can now log in using their Google and Yahoo accounts.

This is a smart move, because it lets users try out Zoho’s products (which cover the gamut of office and business applications) without having to create yet another online account. Even better, this means Zoho customers don’t have to worry that the documents they make using Zoho Creator and related apps can only be shared with other Zoho customers, which was obviously a big limitation.

The goal, naturally, is to attract as many users as possible by lowering the barriers to entry. Zoho evangelist Raju Vegesna points to a totally scientific (note: not really) Lifehacker poll comparing Google Docs and Zoho’s apps. Google came out ahead, but mainly through name recognition. When it came to customers who tried both, Zoho came out ahead by a whopping 70 percent. (Google and Zoho’s apps offer a similar selling point of being cheaper than most of the competition, but irrespective of the product quality, Google has a huge leg up by just being Google.)

Pleasanton, Calif.-based Zoho is part of AdventNet, which is self-funded. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington reports that Zoho plans to add compatibility with the OpenID log in protocol, too.