Hello. Been a bit busy lately with some other projects. 
I just saw this poll that says that most people (61%) “think there are too many unnecessary features on their mobile phone now than compared to ten years ago” and “People think they care about ‘pixels’ or ‘megabits’ when in fact they just want mobiles that are easy to use.”. No surprise here. I bet you that most desktop sharing software users feel similarly about desktop sharing software…
Mitchell
Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite non-fiction writers. In this article he makes some very interesting observations about how little guys “Davids” can overcome the big guys “Goliaths”. In the article he points out:
“David’s victory over Goliath, in the Biblical account, is held to be an anomaly. It was not. Davids win all the time. The political scientist Ivan Arreguín-Toft recently looked at every war fought in the past two hundred years between strong and weak combatants. The Goliaths, he found, won in 71.5 per cent of the cases.”
One of the examples he gives is an analysis of a girls basketball team that, without much talent, nearly won the championship based on, of all things, superior effort. Simply working harder than their opposition was their secret weapon.
Now for success in life, of course, it is a bit more complicated than just working harder, but, according to Gladwell, not as much as you might think. According to him, superior effort applied continuously is the key to success. I think he makes a compelling case.
Check it out and let me know what you think.
Mitchell
If you have never been to www.TED.com then you really need to do so. According to the site “TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds.”
The website has a collection of videos some of their talks which they call “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world”. Really good stuff. Do check it out.
This talk by David Pogue discusses many of the points that I have been writing about here, namely that when it comes to technology, simplicity sells.
He may not sing that well (yes, Pogue not only sings, he plays the piano as well), but he does make some excellent points. He talks about how both the iPod and Google have done quite well by embracing simplicity. He says that the hard part of software design is “not deciding what to add, but what to leave out.” That pretty much sums up our philosophy behind the design of WebMeeting123 . We focused more on what to leave out than what to add. We are happy with the result. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Mitchell
In internet time two and a half years is an eternity. Yet, this article from November 2006 makes the same point that I’ve been making here. Namely “Why don’t screen-sharing systems focus on doing one thing well? It’s partly because the simple, single-purpose tools that helped make Unix great haven’t been fashionable for a long time.”
Funny thing is that the top desktop sharing/web conferencing solutions all think that complicated is the way to go.
We’ve chosen to focus on simplicity, yet we do give you the option of having your logo and your background in the guest viewer and the option to direct your guest to your website at the end of your meetings.
The ability to customize WebMeeting123 with your company logo will let you project a professional image while not breaking your budget. Pretty cool IMO.
Mitchell
I have an account with Google Voice. A really cool service that used to be called Grand Central. While it’s not yet open to the public, it will be soon.
You really should check it out as it has some really cool features.
Well, Google has just introduced a transcription service for your voice mails. They will even email you a text copy of what they think your voicemail says. Bottom line, their transcription service just plain sucks. My last message from their service was so garbled as to hardly be understandable. The voice message itself was perfectly clear to me. As I wrote, not yet ready for prime time IMO.
It just so happens I just today had the pleasure of getting my first text to voice message. Somebody thought it would be cool to be able to send a text message to someone via a call. Not a good idea as far as I am concerned. Having a computer first tell you that you have a “Verizon text to voice message” and then have a computer read you the message is not a pleasant experience, at all. The voice had the most irritating quality. It was so bad that I deleted the message (ironically, I got it in my voicemail) and hated the experience.
So, while the voice to text is just not ready, as least as far as Google voice is concerned, I happen to think that text to voice is just a bad idea.
Mitchell
“Judith Davis didn’t need a camera.
She didn’t want to play games.
She just wanted a cell phone so she could call people in an emergency.
So the 67-year-old Des Moines woman became a Jitterbug customer.
She likes that the buttons on her phone are bigger than on her previous cell phones and that it has fewer features. The earpiece is more comfortable, she said, and the sound is high-quality.
“I love it,” she said. “It’s easy. All you do is turn it on; close the lid and it shuts itself off. It’s everything I wanted in a phone.”
The bottom line is that, despite what engineers might think, most people just want things that work and are simple to use. There is a reason that there were so many VCRs that had their clocks flashing 12:00 am for so long.
WebMeeting123 is the “Jitterbug” of the web conferencing / desktop sharing software world. If you just want to share what’s on your desktop, with no muss, no fuss, no white boards and no chat, no unneeded features, then we have the solution for you. Try WebMeeting123 for free for 30 days and we think you’ll be convinced that simple products do make life easier.
Mitchell
I came across this quote today:
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
~Albert Einstein
How cool. We have believed since the beginning that as far a web conferencing/desktop sharing software is concerned, less is more. Easier to use is better.
If you need complexity, there are many solutions out there. If you want something that is easy to use and inexpensive, WebMeeting123 was designed with you in mind.
Mitchell
This survey (PDF file) by Wainhouse Resarch found the following:
“The net result of our analysis of this survey data has led Wainhouse Research to conclude that the opportunity cost of not being able to maximize the use of web conferencing in an organization may well represent the single largest unrealized combination of cost savings and benefit delivery to occur when web conferencing is not easy to use.”
further on they say,
“Respondents also are at the high end of agreement with two more statements: 1) that “an offering with fewer features but greater Ease of Use can be of more value than an offering with more features that is complex to use,” and 2) “those who are uncomfortable with the technology are reluctant to host meetings.” While not “hard” costs per se, the logical conclusion is that value might be found in Ease of Use, and that without comfort, less activity would take place and less ROI might be gained from investments in licenses, equipment and infrastructure. ”
they continue,
“This ranking exercise, in which we assigned values based on how items were ranked, found that Ease of Use is so meaningful it is ranked as the #1 criterion for selecting web conferencing.”
We couldn’t agree more. When it comes to web conferencing, for most people, less is more.
If you want ease of use, WebMeeting123 is the best and most affordable solution available today on the market. We have done away with all but the most important features to make web conferencing simple and easy to do.
Unlike other solutions with tons of unneeded features, WebMeeting123 is simple and affordable at only $79 a year. Don’t take my word for it, try it out for free and let me know what you think.
Mitchell
I was a bit hasty in an earlier post in claiming that GEICO had dropped their Cavemen campaign in favor of “The Money You Could be Saving” campaign. Wrong. Cavemen were readily seen hawking GEICO products throughout the NCAA men’s basketball tourney.
My question is with all the money GEICO spends on its commercials, how exactly is it able to offer lower priced auto insurance?
BTW, GEICO stands for Government Employee Insurance Company. I don’t think that that is a requirement to be a customer anymore.
Mitchell
The New York Times is reporting that Cisco is buying Pure Digital Technologies.
And who is Pure Digital Technologies you ask? According to the article:
“Pure Digital started selling the Flip line of products in 2007 and has since shipped more than two million units, which cost $150 to $230, depending on the model. The device’s claim to fame has been its minimalism.
The Flip recorders have just a few buttons, weigh a few ounces and have 1.5-inch screens. In addition, they arrive without cables, relying on a built-in connector that plugs into a computer’s U.S.B. port for both recharging and transferring video files.”
Minimalism is their claim to fame. That is the approach we’re taking with WebMeeting123 . We have reduced desktop sharing to just three clicks of your mouse. We think it’s not just easier to use, but that it’s simply a better way to do business. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Mitchell