beta Archive

Zoho is announcing this morning that their new Zoho Meeting tool is moving into beta. I asked Raju (Zoho evangelist) for a quote that describes Zoho Meeting, “Zoho Meeting is an important milestone for Zoho. As you know, the key aspect of online apps is collaboration and Zoho Meeting enhances our existing collaboration functionalities further.” He also sent over the following list of features:

• Create Meetings, share desktop with multiple attendees
• Attendees can attend the meeting from any operating system
• Has three viewers – Active-X, Java and Flash
• Participants can choose to control presenters desktop
• Meetings can be embedded in web pages and applications
• Zoho Meeting is integrated into Zoho Show. Users can add a Meeting slide into Zoho Show. This combines presentations and desktop sharing functionality
• Zoho chat is integrated into Zoho Meeting
• Meeting is currently free while it is in Beta

I think the two features that stand out to me are the integration with the other Zoho tools. If you are a Zoho suite user, this is a nobrainer. The other piece is the cost. While free for now, I can only imagine that it will follow suit with the other Zoho tools and the price will be low compared to other tools such as WebEx. 

Earlier this year, Jake reviewed Yugma, another new meeting/desktop sharing software. As more of us work with groups that are scattered around the world, the usage of these tools will skyrocket. While sending emails works a lot of the time, face-2-face discussions are critical for a product’s success.

Raju created a brief overview video, check it out below:

Updates: The official Skitch site is located at: www.plasq.com/skitch.
We have 50 invites! Invites gone, grab the feed to be notified when we snag some more for ya’all!

I received a tip last week that Skitch, by Plasq, was moving into invite-beta mode this week. Colin just posted additional information about this move. I am in the process of attempting to get beta keys for all of you, but for now, hop over to Colin's blog for a key.

So I remember being a young kid, going to a computer fair and buying the first version of PSP – Paint Shop Pro. It came on one 3.5" floppy and made me so excited to draw and color. Skitch reminds me of PSP in it's ease of use and absolute functionality.

Skitch is not here to replace Photoshop. Skitch is like MS Paint on drugs. Colin has an in-depth overview which includes, "Skitch is jammed packed with features yet the interface for those features never gets in your way or becomes overbearing. Quickly take a screenshot in just about anyway you can think of. Then you can annotate a screenshot once you’ve captured it. Sharing your screenshot with the world is probably Skitch’s strong suit."

So basically Skitch is a way to take screenshots, mark them up, and share them with the world. Loads of "uploaded by Skitch" notes are appearing on Flickr. The app is available on the mac only and my hope is that they release a web-version of this. This would make a great iPhone app.

Lastly, they are also launching MySkitch, a social network around sharing the screenshots.

eBuddy has launched two new Beta programs today. Their new Mobile Messenger and Web Messenger have moved into Beta. I have played around with the Web version a bit and it is pretty sweet. Usually these online chat apps are average or on par with the master app itself, but the new eBuddy seems to be even more robust than using AIM standalone. Appears to work very smoothly and I will have a more detailed review in a couple of days.

All of the details are located on their Beta page and you can go directly to the mobile or Web signups as well. JJ (founder) told me they are only accepting a limited number of testers currently, so get your invite request in quick. I will try to pull his leg to get some additional codes for our loyal CN readers!

Check out our previous eBuddy coverage and my interview with eBuddy founder, Jan-Joost Rueb.

AOL has moved their local search into Beta mode tonight. And I have to give it to them, it's pretty slick. They are using Mapquest on the mapping technology and as I have said a billion times already this year, Local is where it's at.

What I really like about it is how it refreshes the local options as you move around the map. So start in 10036 (Times Square) and move to 11235 (Brooklyn) and the options move with you. I don't think Google even does that!

Ratings come from users on AOL Local and the maps and results come quick. Of course, this type of local search would be great on Yelp!

Two companies have been working hard for some time now, preparing for their beta launches. Tteach and Dekoh are both rather idealistic in nature, and bring that simple attribute to their companies. This perspective is actually quite necessary, considering the fact that both companies are ushering in a few new concepts when it comes to interactivity online. Tteach aims to provide free schooling for anyone with Internet access, through a program of published lessons online from authorities in the community. Dekoh has created a service to share media from your desktop through the internet without downloading or uploading any of the items.

Tteach will offer a way for everyone to gain access to more information in an increasingly interactive manner. A self-regulating system by design, those that offer the most value to others will be ranked accordingly and given more status within Tteach. This is important since the way in which people learn has a great deal to do with how they retain informaiton. Finding someone that can stimulate the desire to learn is so much more important than the traditional theories regarding education. With Tteach, a wide variety of lessons and educational tools will become available online, and a community can be formed around these lessons. If someone finds a particular affinity with one teacher, then they will be able to go back to that teacher time and again, and correspond with them directly.

Dekoh's ability to offer insight to one's desktop through the internet without the burden of uploading and then distributing across several networks and applications is breaking ground in new territory. They have provided a way for you to pick and choose which of my songs you'd like to play in a separate player, or view all of my photo albums. Dekoh's applications are easy ways to manage media, and even have an integration tool so that your photos can quickly and automatically be loaded into your Flikr account. The platform Dekoh has built also allows for the creation and sharing of an application you've built for yourself, as well as saving an existing application (i.e. your blog) to be worked on offline.

As both of these companies are introducing new ways of going about existing human interactions, they will require a certain amount of education for the public. It is for this reason (among many) that beta testing is so important. And as Tteach and Dekoh prepare for their next phase of development, we ponder the ramifications and possibilities that these new services will be able to offer us.

This article was written by Kristen Nicole, who writes for 606tech.com.

After the Gmail issues surfaced yesterday about mailboxes being deleted and so forth, I took a look at how long a Beta period Gmail has been in. Pick the right answer from the choices below:

• 6 months
• 3 days
• 12 hours
• 6 years
• over 30 months

The correct answer is over 30 months. So with a huge team of developers, designers and engineers, the product is still not ready for primetime? Or does it mean that they actually put it out in 2004 with no testing and are using this 3 year period for testing?

Look at Flickr. They are no longer in Beta, now they are in Gamma. WTF is Gamma.

Are these companies using the umbrella of the Latin language to cover their asses in case of an issue?

I am all for public testing for a number of reasons including: cost, feedback, generating buzz for product, etc. But how long is just too long?

I believe it is now time for the gift wrapping to come off the Gmail Beta box. Let's get it into production folks. Let's remove the Beta from the logo. Let's do it now. To help them, I am taking the Beta packaging off myself, I think 30 years has been long enough!

Mike just posted about reports of mass Gmail account deletions. Yep, I would be pissed as f*** if my Gmail account was deleted. Actually I don't really use Gmail except for some data dumps and they are still there as of 10 minutes ago. Phew!

So why am I putting this post into the WTF Dept? Easy. Gmail has a note on their logo… did you happen to notice it when you use the app? Here let me show you (magnified 4x):

That's right people, it is a BETA. What does BETA mean? It means simply that shit won't always work. That its a work in progress.

I agree with GMAilFan in the TechCrunch comments that you should be able to export your mail from Gmail onto your local harddrive. I can see Google implementing this asap! In any event, you should export your mail via the POP mail method so in case Gmail deletes your account, you will have a backup. Get those Zip drives and Bernoulli drives out of the closet!

FYI, Here are the service terms from Gmail on the usage of their service:

Indemnification. You agree to hold harmless and indemnify Google, and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, and employees from and against any third party claim arising from or in any way related to your use of the Service, including any liability or expense arising from all claims, losses, damages (actual and consequential), suits, judgments, litigation costs and attorneys' fees, of every kind and nature. In such a case, Google will provide you with written notice of such claim, suit or action.