Queercents

Gmail—everyone seems to know what it is, and a huge number of people use it. Hands-down, it’s recognized as the best ‘deal’ in the free webmail scene. But why?

In short, it comes down to Google’s core values. Among them are “Focus on the user and all else will follow,” and, parphrased, “don’t be evil.” Running with this direction, Google’s team (and a huge user community) turned on email on its side by acknowledging two core things: 1) people have conversations, not messages,   2) humans don’t always think linearly and 3) keep powerful features easy.

Staying in the conversation

Gmail offers something few other email clients have been able to touch: effective threaded conversations. What is a thread? Imagine passing a note back and forth in class—writing a reply on the same page that you received a message on. Gmail pieces together the messages going in and out of your address to provide a cohesive view of a conversation—even if the messages are weeks apart—so that the context of messages is clearer. This way, instead of wading through pages of ‘quoted’ messages, which are often hard to read, a user can collapse and expand messages which came before and after whatever message they are reading. Often, this makes each message shorter, too, as introductions and conclusions are less necessary. Read the rest of this entry »

How many times have you wanted to work on a simple document with a friend or colleague, only to be stopped by problems constantly sending files back and forth? Or needed to share a spreadsheet with a client, only to find their copy of Excel won’t open your file? As part of our series on web applications for small business, we’ll take a look at Google Docs as a way to save you money.

Google Docs is a free service which allows you to work on basic documents (word processing, spreadsheets and presentations) in your browser. At a basic level, it provides the most commonly used functions of programs likes Microsoft Office for free. Your files are stored online, instead of on your computer—which means that crashes and viruses don’t affect them, but your ability to access the web does (for example, if your cable modem goes out, you can’t access your documents until you find another internet connection). This sort of online file storage is referred to as ‘the cloud’ in Web 2.0 parlance.

Google Docs’ Intro Video Explains Web Apps

Google Docs also allows for the wonderful experience of jointly authoring or editing a document. Say, for example, that you are working on a notice from the board of your neighborhood association. You could try to get everyone together in the same room to edit at the same time, or attempt to pass around a document (while tracking revisions of it) or delegate the task to just one person. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve ever checked your free e-mail account from a friend’s computer without paying a dime, you’ve experienced of glimpse of web apps. Most small business owners don’t know that everything from accounting to conference calls can be achieved online for low or no cost, so we’ve chosen to write a series on small business savings via web apps. We’ll evaluate the benefits, utility and cost of a number of applications. Since my company, Causeit, Inc. is in the process of converting many of our desktop documents into web-capable systems, many of these trials will be supported by our own experience or those of our clients. Here are some of the potential topics [please suggest more!]:

• Mind-Mapping and Outlining Tools to Organize Your Thoughts
• Bookkeeping in a Browser: Online Bookkeeping & Invoicing
• Using Google Documents to Share For Free
• Teleportation: Remote Access and Meetings Via the Web
• Save on Saving: Online Backup Tools
• Can Facebook Actually Get You Clients?
• Using LinkedIn for Networking Knowhow and Reference-Checking
• Online Phone Systems: Press 1 For Cheap Voicemail & Calls
• Google Calendar: Scheduling Your Success/Workgroup Calendars for $0 a User
• Remember the Milk: Free, Powerful Online Task Management
• E-Mail Marketing: What’s the Best Deal?
• Online Project Management: Does it Really Save Time? Read the rest of this entry »