Although you wouldn't think it by the name Zamzar is a Web-based file conversation tool. File conversion tools are not new but the fact that it is Web-based is. Zamzar supports are variety of file conversions that fall under document (including Word and Excel), video, image and music categories.
Traditionally file conversion has operated under a fairly conventional model, you pay a license fee and are given a piece of software that sits on your computer that undertakes the file conversion. Zamzar uses a different approach, it is completely free and rather than downloading a piece of software to your computer your file is uploaded to their server for conversion. On completion a link is emailed to you and by following it your newly converted file can be downloaded. The financial model at work here is advertising and the market they are targeting is the casual user who cannot justify the cost or complexity of a fully blown piece of conversion software sitting on their desktop.
Where things get interesting is if this concept was applied to the AEC industry. Currently the industry leader for CAD file conversion is Right Hemisphere with their Deep Exploration/Server suite. The problem for these guys is that their software is so complex and powerful that most AEC companies do not need them when it comes to file conversion. Instead companies either own multiple pieces of CAD software (i.e. one license of AutoCAD in the office 'just in case') or they simply will not accept files of a certain type (many projects specify allowed file types for third parties). What would be really interesting for the AEC industry is if the power of the Right Hemisphere conversion software could be made available in a model like Zamzar's (i.e low cost and Web-based).
Low cost, Web-based CAD file conversion would save the industry time and a great deal of money, the only barrier would appear to be the lucrative nature of products like Deep Server and the unwillingness of its owners to loose $100,000+ license fees and adopt a new, more approachable and affordable delivery model. One thing to note about CAD file conversion is that it is extremely processor intensive, any Web-based CAD file conversion system would need to use some form of load distribution system otherwise if files could not be converted in a reasonable amount of time then the chances are it will not be used. One cost effective way of achieving this would be to utilise a flexible, load balancing system like Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for the actual file conversion process.
The chances of something like this coming into fruition is pretty slim but if it did it could really shake up the notion of CAD compatibility and save the AEC industry an immense amount of time, money and pain.