I think I’ve said it before, but just in case you haven’t heard, I’m a big fan of the Google productivity suite. I use their email, calendar, photos, documents…I think you get the picture. Well, when a few friends and I decided to start an investment club the logical choice for an easy to set-up website was Google Apps for your domain. It allows us to easily share information, administer users and experiment with things while we decide what we want our more permanent solution to look like. All in all, it’s worked pretty well and the group members love it.
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.
Ok, so almost 3 months ago when TechCrunch wrote that Intuit (the makers of TurboTax, QuickBooks, Quicken, etc) were launching a development platform within QuickBase I signed up. I thought it would be pretty cool to at least see what they were doing and I’m really into Enterprise software (small, medium or large enterprises are all the same to me - business is business no matter the size).
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.
AOL launched a mobile version of it’s once king AOL Instant Messanger (AIM) the other day and initial findings are promising but they’ve got a ways to go. ReadWriteWeb thinks it’s a must have app for Windows Mobile devices and I tend to agree if they make some changes. However, hands down it beats what Google is offering for my mobile phone without downloading a third party application…a big fat goose egg. I understand they’re pushing their own mobile operating system but come on! Blackberry has one and Bill Gates isn’t even running the day to day operations at Microsoft anymore so let bygones be bygones. But I digress. I know it’s still in Beta but here are some thoughts.
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.
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!
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.
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
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:
Add an option to my photo menu to set a particular image as my AIM icon
Add an option to my photo menu to send images to AIM buddies if I’m logged in
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.
Ok, first of all, it’s been a really long time since I’ve posted. I apologize but any complaints can be sent directly to my boss who has kept me absolutely swamped the last two months. I promise I’ll be up and posting again shortly. I’ve actually got a couple notes written that I want to turn into posts.
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.
Ok, this is more of a rant than a real post but there are times the ‘2.0′ moniker just doesn’t work! Stop the madness!! I was in Hallmark this afternoon picking out mother’s day cards and just happened to notice a stand of ‘treasures’ (aka, mostly useless crap). I don’t think I normally would have noticed except there was glitter all over the place so it caught my attention…I guess that marketing ploy worked.
Anyways, I look at the ‘TY’ tag and notice they’ve added ‘2.0′ to Beanie Babies. Really?!? You think this is your second coming?!? Adding 2.0 to something doesn’t just make it the new buzzword and give your business a new chance.
I’ve heard of business 2.0 and web 2.0 and agree with the new name. I mean, 2.0 in both of these cases means the rules of the game have completely changed. The way business is done and sales are made has changed. The web is now social and it’s getting even more so every day. But how does Beanie Babies 2.0 work?
Did you completely change how Beanie Babies function? Didn’t look like it to me…same old fabric animals stuffed with tiny beans. Do they interact with a website? Is this your answer to Webkinz? This sounds like a last-ditch effort to me and I thought it was pretty lame.
Google and Salesforce announced a partnership the other day that will bring a combined Google/Salesforce business suite to it’s users. The service is called “Salesforce for Google Apps” and touts “powerful yet easy-to-use productivity tools for smarter management of customers, sales and marketing.”
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.
