HTML5 has it’s pro’s and con’s that each developer needs to weigh (we won’t get into that here) but web storage and web database are great advances.  The packaged modern mobile browsers (Safari, Android browser, etc) all support the specification which allows applications to store information from within their application that persists from session to session.  It can be very powerful…but it is definitely open for exploitation.  A common example is Gmail which utilizes the storage feature (along with App Cache) to allow you to work within the Gmail web-app while you are not connected to a network.  It also speeds up the entire user experience.

All that being said, I logged into AdWords this evening to begin preparing my campaign for this weekend and noticed they’ve begun utilizing local storage.  The great thing about it is that they request your approval rather than doing it behind the scenes.  Given that any website can create a ‘database’ on your local machine for storing information, I think that all user-agents (think Safari, Firefox, Chrome, etc) should force the user to authorize each use of local storage – i.e. one approval for gmail.com).

In short, it’s really cool that more and more sites are beginning to implement these features as browsers roll-out support but I’m more impressed that AdWords asks for permission.  I think more web-apps should follow the AdWords lead!

I’ve held off publishing my review to ensure I gave my self ample time to review the different aspects of the service.  I will say that my final experiment (before publishing my review, that is) was performed on a Mac in the Google Chrome browser. I was greeted by a warning message that was essentially ‘browser not supported, proceed at your own risk’ but found no significant issues.  There were a few overflow errors (likely just CSS) but the service worked splendidly which excited me since Chrome is my browser of choice.

How I’m Looking at 12Sprints

So, I entered the experiment with limited exposure to Google Wave (I have an account but haven’t been that active) looking at 12Sprints purely from an enterprise operations standpoint.  How can the average enterprise use 12Sprints to succeed or make themselves better?  Four areas immediately popped into my mind with instant thoughts of SAP backend integration – purchasing, customer service, engineering and, of course, the executive suite.

Purchasing and customer service is probably at the top of everyone’s list.  The ability to collaborate across a multi-national corporation on large purchasing decisions or bounce a customers complaint around to different people in an organization with ease has incredible potential for the business and the consumer.  Combine the collaboration aspect of 12Sprints with integration to SAPs backend and the possibilities for process improvement are endless.  Ideally, I see purchasing and customer service being integrated with SAPs Records Management and Case Management solutions.

Engineering is something that may not make it to the typical list of use-cases but I think it’s important to call out.  An organizations ability to design products and reduce the overall time to market is a competitive advantage that I see 12Sprints impacting for the better.  Couple the collaborative nature 12Sprints with SAPs cFolders solution and I think you have a very interesting solution that will help reduce the time it takes for companies to hit the market introduction stage of a product.

Feature Set

12Sprints came loaded with a solid set of features for the typical enterprise.  Actions within 12Sprints are organized into what is called an ‘activity’.  Each activity can have any number of ‘tools’ such as agenda’s, responsibility matrices (ARCI, RACI, DACI and RASIC), Cost/Benefit and SWOT analysis, Pro’s and Con’s and even a decision tool that requires that you ‘lock in’ what was decided.

I think one of the really cool features is 12Sprints integration of the online note tool Evernote.  The process of adding content from my Evernote account was seemless and a huge draw for me personally.  I question it’s reach at the enterprise level right now (none of my clients are currently using Evernote) but at an individual user level I find it very useful.  User’s can also post content from their computers such as Excel spreadsheets,  PowerPoint presentations or that recently completed White Paper.

Missing Features

I think the biggest feature missing was the ability to chat with other members of an activity or your organization.  Collaboration on documents, decisions and the like is key (the major use-case here) so I don’t understand exactly why an embedded chat feature was left off the list.  My guess (hope) is that it is in the works for a future release.

Another feature that I’d like to see made more prominent is the services integration with various SAPs services.  Understandably, 12Sprints is still in beta (and I don’t have an SAP environment linked) but I couldn’t find any clues of it’s potential integration with an SAP backend system.

They do, however, have a call for developers looking to partner on the product so perhaps they’re attempting to build that ‘app store’ ecosystem where enterprises can purchase miscellaneous extensions to enhance the service.  I think it would be a great move to drive innovation and reduce the time it takes for 12Sprints to exit Beta.  It’s obviously too early to tell but given that the apps are the flavor of the day for platform roadmaps I wouldn’t be surprised.

All-in-all – two thumbs up so far and expect additional reviews as the 12Sprints team continues to enhance the service.

GrandCentral Certificate Expires

January appears to be a rough month for the internet behemoth.  Last January, around the same time (January 23rd actually), someone at Google failed to renew the Google.de domain which brought it down for several hours after someone else registered it.

Chrome got rid of the ‘fat’ around the browser giving me the tools/options I use the most and increasing my viewing area.  Another great feature is the fact that each tab runs independently so if one crashes it doesn’t destroy your entire browser session.  Just that one tab!  One thing I do wish they had though, ALT+F+C/X to close a tab.  However, that’s a discussion for another day.

Anyways, I’ve been using Chrome extensively the last few weeks and was disappointed when I discovered that there doesn’t appear to be any built-in XML/RSS rendering support.  I already use Google Reader so I’m not looking for an IE approach (feed in the browser – I don’t even use the browser), but something similar to Firefox would be nice if I happen to land on a page that is XML/RSS.  Not only does it not offer a way for me to subscribe to the document, it just displays raw text.  Here are some screenshots for comparison.

I’m disappointed but I’ll continue use Chrome.  It just makes it more difficult to subscribe to things than it was with Firefox.

RSS feed in Google Chrome

RSS feed in Firefox

RSS feed in IE7

I guess for those few (maybe there is actually a lot) that have problems with drunk-mailing this could be a good fix but I’d much prefer Gmail spend the time to come up with ‘mailbox rules’ similar to Outlook.  Before people start screaming, yes, I know you can use Outlook with Gmail but I don’t want to have to use it.  With rules, I can easily setup a 1 minute delay on outbound emails.  This allows me to catch that last sentence or add that last recipient that may have slipped my mind as I clicked ‘send’.

You can configure the settings on the ‘general’ tab after enabling the feature.  It’s a pretty quick configuration and let’s you tell Google when your preferred drinking times are and allows you to make it as easy or as difficult as you want.

As I found while I was testing, once you ‘pass the test’ once you can send as many emails as you want without being prompted to take the quiz again.  Apparently, you have to logout and then login again to re-prompt the ‘Mail Goggles’.  At least I had to logout, even when I tried sending messages to a different address.  Maybe it only asks you to verify once every set amount of time?!?

Verdict: Leave this one disabled.

Settings:

Gmail Adds Mail Goggles - Settings

Easy: 

Gmail Mail Goggles Easy Settings

Difficult: 

Gmail Mail Goggles Difficult Settings

Last Tuesday, Amazon announced that it plans to unveil the ability to run Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server on the EC2 platform later this fall.  This announcement is a huge step and will allow customers to deploy ASP.NET applications using a host of database options as well as other Windows-based applications such as Windows Media transcoding.  This advancement in cloud computing will really ease the transition for potential enterprise clients which still tend to be very Windows heavy – ASP.NET portals still seem to be rather popular in my experience.

Last week, in an email to developers, they also announced that Oracle has certified EC2 as “the first cloud computing platform that has been authorized to run supported Oracle databases” which also increases the database options for enterprises and developers alike.  According to the announcement, customers will be able to run Oracle 11g, Oracle Fusion Middleware and the Oracle Enterprise Manager on AWS.  Oracle is really taking an interest in the project and has delivered a set of free images to help make deployment easier.

I don’t claim to know how many ‘enterprise’ clients Amazon Web Services has on its roster but I think this is really a step in the right direction.  I know enterprise security executives are still wary about throwing their proprietary data in the ‘cloud’ but who wouldn’t enjoy a little extra cushion for those PR heavy days when your site gets overloaded.  I can only imagine how busy the Bear Sterns intranet was the day their employees found out it was over.

This will also continue to lower the barrier of entry for web-based start-ups.  The language of choice these days tends to be PHP, but that isn’t normally a part of the university curriculum.  Now, students can continue to expand on those class projects and turn them into successful (hopefully…) start-ups.  Of course, that’s only for those few that aren’t programming before they hit high school.

I’m always in the market for great WordPress themes.  I’ve changed the theme for this blog a couple times and each time I find something I don’t care for.  I started looking for themes on ThemeForest and found a WordPress theme that I thought would work well for the site (I’ve since purchased it but I haven’t finished customizing it yet – expect a rollout in a week or two).   I also found a generic website template that I wanted to buy.

In order to purchase templates you have to deposit money into your ThemeForest account…you can’t pay for each transaction individually after you find your design.  No ‘shopping cart’ functionality but they do allow you to bookmark themes you like.  I think that’s a mistake from a usability standpoint but if people want the theme bad enough, they’ll succomb to the poor process design.

So I start the process to deposit money and find that I can only give them money in multiples of $20.  Slightly confused/turned-off by yet another usability problem I contact customer service and ask if there is another way to make this happen.  I get a response a few hours later (great turn around by the way, seriously, I was impressed) tell me that their system can only handle the amounts displayed but that “although your money does expire after a year it can easily be renewed by emailing Support, so in actual fact you can keep the remaining credit in the account indefinatly.”

That’s great except for the fact that I may never use that money.  I ask if they offered refunds after a year but was shot down on that as well.  I mean it’s only $5 (my combined total was going to be $35) but why should I give you a free $5 because you have a poor design.

Frustrated, I set out to find a way around this but told myself I’d dedicate no more than 15 minutes to the effort.  I know PayPal can handle any amounts you throw at them so I figure I would explore bypassing their absurd “checks”.  Luckily, I know enough about web development and form submissions that I figure I would try a couple elementary hacks.  After locating the script on their server they submit to before sending to PayPal I locate the variable names and amount format and proceed to deposit exactly $35.  Here’s a shot of my deposit history for all you doubters…details on the hack are below the image.

Hack Details

1) Locate the themes you want to purchase and calculate your total

2) Translate your total into a 4-character non-currency format.  For example, my $35.00 deposit was translated to an amount of “3500”

3) Login to your ThemeForest.net account

4) Once logged in, enter the following URL in your browsers address bar and change XXXX to your amount determined in step 2: http://themeforest.net/accounts/confirm_deposit/?amount=XXXX.  For example, the URL for my $35.00 transaction was “http://themeforest.net/accounts/confirm_deposit/?amount=3500″

5) Once redirected to the PayPal website, confirm that your user id is referenced in the description and that the amount is right.  Your user id should be within the red rectangle on the image below

6) Once you complete the PayPal transaction you’ll be redirected back to your ThemeForest account where you can purchase your templates

NOTE: Use this hack at your own risk.  I don’t claim to be huge in the blogosphere but once the hack is public it’s possible ThemeForest will close the loop-hole.  I make no claims or warranties that the hack will work as described and can not be held liable for any losses you may incur.  Also, I did not ‘hack’ into their system to prepare this.  ’Hack’ in this context means ‘manual work around’ and all I did to determine how to accomplish this was review the HTML source sent to my browser by their server.

LinkedIn recently made a move to improve their messaging capabilities.  Sadly, they’re doing a very poor job of simply copying Facebook.

Facebook has been enhancing it’s messaging system for a while now and it’s actually pretty good.  I can message a friend, a friend list or an external email address.  I can add dozens of friends to a single message (I’ve added up to around 20) and the interface is clean and very easy to use.  The ‘new’ LinkedIn message center is simply a less functional copy of Facebook.

LinkedIn only allows up to 10 contacts on a message.  I can’t think of too many situations where I’d need more than a few people on a LinkedIn message but there are always exceptions and the fact that they’ve limited it is just silly.  They also don’t allow me (at least that I could figure out) to enter someones email address.  What if I want the message to go to an account that isn’t linked to my LinkedIn account, or to a co-worker that doesn’t have LinkedIn (yes, there are still those few).

One thing I did like about the LinkedIn message composer is the fact that it allows me to choose which linked email address the message is sent from.  Definitely something over Facebook…but then again Facebook doesn’t really need this.  I don’t want my work email address sent to people when replying to job opportunities.

Here’s a couple shots of the different messaging services for comparison:

I know devloping these kinds of services requires a lot of work and I appreciate that.  It’s better than what it used to be.  I just think if you’re going to blatantly copy another social networks messaging capabilities you need to do it justice.

I started noticing the changes Tuesday morning when I logged in and was immediately excited. Google announced the new streamlined login Tuesday night on the Google Analytics blog.

Now to play the devils advocate. I appreciate the change because I hated pausing to enter my password again but I’m not sure why they couldn’t take it one step further and take me right to the main landing page. If it’s for security reasons, I’ve got to say there are other services that use the Google single-signon that I’m more worried about if my account is compromised.

Also, if you visit Google Analytics without being logged into another Google service you now have an additional step. Now, you have to click the ‘access analytics’ button which will determine you’re not logged in and then you have to enter your Google credentials.

All in all, I think it will save me some time because I don’t often visit Analytics first thing (I tend to be an email person followed by RSS reader) but I’m not exactly sure what the engineers where thinking when they ok’d that approach.

Here are a couple screenshots of the new login approach:

Tonight, as with most nights, I login to check club activity and make sure things are working smoothly.  I have a lot of faith in Google but based on my experiences at work, a random check up here and there can save you in the long run.

Much to my surprise, I was greeted by a message that said my users may have issues using Google Apps – specifically the email application.  I like that I was warned and luckily we all still keep our own personal email addresses, but I was still pretty shocked.  While implementing the site I read several of the forums and there are a lot of people that use Google Apps for ‘mission critical’ purposes.

I will say though…at least they warn you.  It was nice for them to let me know I may get some crappy emails before they actually made it to my inbox.  I tried to get an image of the problem but I’m on the road (Dallas, TX this week) for work and well…my company issued computer is pretty worthless.  I apologize for its quality in advance.

Well, after registering I didn’t get a confirmation email, a “thanks for registering” email or even a “you were rejected, better luck next time”.   I figured it was a good try, I guess I’m not getting that 5 minutes back.  Then yesterday, completely out of the blue, I get a note from QuickBase that  I’ve “been accepted into the Intuit QuickBase Developer Program”.  Ok, well that’s cool but you may want to communicate a little better next time.  I figured some server troll somewhere ate my application.  Good thing you didn’t make me submit my password when I initially signed up or I would have been in trouble.

Anyways, I’ve completed the registration and I’m going to begin poking around what they have to offer.  At first glance it seems functional but not as visually pleasing as something I’d expect from Intuit.  It is in Beta though so I won’t give them too hard of a time.

More to come on QuickBase in the near future.  Maybe if I can find a few hours I’ll get an example application up.

1. IT’S A HUGE BATTERY KILLER!!! I know the TREO 750 already has ‘poor’ battery life according to critics but this drains it faster than Britney Spears bounces in and out of rehab. I can normally get through a full day with moderate email/phone usage but when I’m running Mobile AIM my battery is ready for charging by 11AM – that’s roughly 3.5 hours of use for you bean counters. This has got to be fixed before launching the final version.
2. IT’S A MEMORY HOG!!! I’m not sure if it’s just intense processing or if it’s an actual memory leak but I gained 12MB of memory after shutting down AIM. Gained means it allocated it back to usable memory when I shut it down…it was using 15% (give or take) of my processing power. On a mobile device that’s a HUGE amount of processing power!
3. It doesn’t give external notifications (other than sound which is just obnoxious) when you have a new IM. If you choose to turn on sound it will play the standard new IM sound. However, if your phone is on vibrate it doesn’t do anything to alert you.
4. The interface is visually pleasing and mostly functional, here are a few comments:
   • Good:
     • Navigating between various conversations and your buddy list is extremely easy, especially if you have a touch screen. I think without a touch screen many of the features I enjoy would be difficult
     • You can add/edit/delete groups and friends which is pretty slick for a mobile Beta release
     • You can easily toggle between available, busy and invisible (major plus considering Google Talk hasn’t even got that right in their desktop client yet)
     • Setting messages (away or status – however you use them) is a breeze
   • Bad:
     • There are some issues with how it ‘pages’ when you scroll through your buddy list – it’s a little clunky. This may be attributed to the fact that it’s using so much processing power and the system chokes a little when you try and scroll
     • When you’re in the conversation mode the ‘send’ button is on the wrong side – at least compared to the TREO 750. Text messaging on the TREO is displayed a lot like IM conversations and the send/close buttons are on different sides than AIM Mobile has them. This is big from a usability stand-point – I’ve already had several messages that didn’t get sent because I clicked the wrong button. Just takes getting used to I suppose…
     • There is an ‘alert me when’ option on the menu that I can’t seem to activate. Not sure how it would work given the fact that I don’t get notified of IMs unless I’m physically in the application
5. There isn’t an automatic updater. Not a huge deal but definitely an inconvenience. Now I have to go to the Beta site and download the new version every time they release a fix. They have said an update notification is on it’s way in a future version though. In the mean time it would be nice if the site included dates/times of the most recent release so I could guesstimate whether I should install again. Maybe I’m just missing it because that seems like common sense.

Here are a couple things I’d like to see them add on top of general usability/performance:

1. Add an option to my photo menu to set a particular image as my AIM icon
2. Add an option to my photo menu to send images to AIM buddies if I’m logged in
3. Allow me to add a link to my Windows Today screen that will take me to a new IM if there is one

My current client has blocked AIM/Google Talk so if you’re in the same boat this is definitely worth the download. Here’s a shot of the user interface from the AIM Mobile site.

(image courtesy of AIM Beta site)

So I don’t use Twitter all that much but I definitely enjoy the occasional tweet (as they so affectionately call my posts).  I also like to browse through what others are posting and catch things here and there that I wouldn’t normally have seen.  Anyways, their lack of technical ability has reached absurdity.  As if it wasn’t bad enough that the service is constantly slow…at least for me…apparently they’re ‘stressing out’ today.  Here’s the gem of a message that I got when I tried to look at my ‘replies’.

Sorry for the poor quality.  I’m on a machine (hint: not my personal laptop) that doesn’t have Photoshop.  As pathetic as this is I had to resort to Paint to get the image.  Btw, 1995 called and it wants it’s software back.

Anyways, back to my rant.  I’m officially putting my use of Twitter on probation.  Not that it’s a big deal since I don’t use it too much but now I’m just not going to bother.  Maybe I’ll pick it up in a few months when they get their act together.

There is the obviously emphasis on collaboration and communication between team/project members. My ‘sales’ experience is relatively limited – I managed a newspaper in college and filling in for the occasional employee is about the extent of it – but the functionality seems practical.

One key feature I liked is the fact that email being sent (from the Gmail interface) can automatically be sent to a customers CRM account. This provides you with a worry-free audit trail and allows your boss or someone covering for you (if you’re out sick or something) to quickly pick up where you left off. Likewise, you can send customer emails directly within Salesforce. I also liked the fact that you can attach/create Google Docs directly from Salesforce. The uses for this are obvious and I think it will really be able to help the sales process. Everything from quote notes, sales presentations and final contracts can be created directly from the Salesforce interface.

It didn’t look like the interface was the same between the two systems which is disappointing but I haven’t signed up for a test account yet so that’s just speculation based on the tour. I think that offering a consistent interface between Google and Salesforce is a must and could help adoption among small businesses.

I don’t know much about Salesforce’s push for mobile but Google has mobile versions of Gmail and Docs and continues to improve them. I’m curious to see what kind of mobile sales/business applications they make available to their users. Anything less than full functionality is unacceptable, but that would be a pretty major project.  I’d also like to get some information on what the security architecture looks like.  ZOHO just announced an enhanced architecture as part of it’s enterprise CRM which is a little more inline with what I see as an SAP consultant.

Simply put, the decision makes sense – Google is trying to break into enterprise business, Salesforce has a great customer base (and from what I read a decent set of applications) and both are competing with Microsoft in some fashion. The partnership allows them to put the full-court press on Microsoft who has been slow to adopt a web-based business model.

It will obviously take time for larger corporations to make the move given the obvious security concerns (mostly on the Google front) and the fact that the majority of business users are still not comfortable with online applications. One thing that could help Google’s case for enterprise applications is the fact that Vista has had so many bumps along the way. The rate at which corporations have been moving to Vista has been slow at best. I work for a technology company and we haven’t even heard rumor’s of a potential migration.

Here’s a quick video tour of Salesforce for Google Apps:

Like it or not, Microsoft still commands a huge share of the presentation software market with it’s PowerPoint product. In order for Google, or any of the other start-ups, to ease the transition for users it’s imperative they allow users to save in the traditional PPT format. If users know they won’t impact how other people have to view something, they’ll be a little more likely to make the move from desktop to webtop.

I personally like the online collaboration features that Google has built into the ‘Docs’ application but not many of my friends and family are into it. And for those of you that work in large corporations, let’s be honest, you’ll be sending out presentations as attachments for a while longer.

Good job Google, keep ‘em coming!