Today’s acquisition is the latest in a series of acquisitions in the collaboration and web communications arenas, including Salesforce’s acquisition of the email contact management company Etacts, and Skype’s announcement that they are buying mobile video provider Qik.

Salesforce says that it plans to follow “the proven Facebook model of combining collaboration and communication into an integrated service.” With consumer sites like Facebook and Twitter creating expectations of real-time social sharing, it is important to incorporate such capabilities into the enterprise. A Dimdim acquisition seems to fit logically into that vision.

It appears likely that Salesforce will use the acquisition to add Dimdim’s presence and on-demand meeting and collaboration tools into Salesforce’s internal systems. At the recent GigaOM Net:Work Conference, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff discussed how they are using their Chatter tools internally to flatten the structure of their own organization, and to allow collaboration and communication across all parts of the company.

We’ve been fans of Dimdim as an easy-to-use and affordable screen-sharing and meeting service, and we’re sorry to see it being lost as an option. New account creation has already been disabled, and it appears that existing monthly accounts will only be available until March 15. Annual accounts will remain active until the current subscription period ends.

Have you used Dimdim? How will the acquisition affect you?

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The enhanced screensharing tools mean a presenter can now opt to share the whole screen, a region of the screen or just a single application window. Sharing just an application window (completely ignoring everything else on the user’s screen) should be particularly useful for product demos where the presenter doesn’t want attendees to be distracted by anything else on the screen.

Here’s a video of Dimdim’s Steve Chazin showing off the latest version of the myScreen plugin:

Previously, Dimdim allowed only two cameras in video chat in paid accounts; that’s now been upped to four. The application interface allows for one large video window and three smaller ones, and the presenter can select which video feed is displayed in the largest window. Video chat can now also be run in full-screen mode. (Note: Free accounts still only have access to one camera.)

Additionally, Dimdim 6.0 has added free secure file hosting to enable presenters and attendees to share files both during and after conferences (2 Gb for paid accounts, 20 Mb for free accounts), and the ability to create polls on the fly.

The company showed me a demo of the new version of the software last week, and I have to say it looked very slick and easy to use for both presenters and attendees, although there were still a few bugs in the in-development parts of the software.

Dimdim offers a range of competitively priced plans, from Dimdim Free (basic features, up to 10 attendees, free) up to Dimdim Business (advanced features, up to 100 attendees and optionally scalable to 1,000 participants, $33 per user per month).

Let us know what you think of the new features in Dimdim 6.0 in the comments.
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Dimdim Business also enables customization of the entire web conferencing platform, including its meeting rooms, company URLs and email templates. This feature — and it’s one that’s not available in many of Dimdim’s competitors, such as WebEx and GoToMeeting — will allow businesses to individually brand meetings with their logo, company name and web pages to bring their own “look and feel.” Businesses can also embed Dimdim Business inside their site using open APIs.

Dimdim Business costs $33 per user per month.

Let us know which web conferencing solution you use in the comments.

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Enabling the Web Work Revolution

Current Dimdim customers — including users of the free level — may see a dialog box next time they enter their Dimdim account suggesting that they download the myScreen plugin. Pro users can lock their meeting, meaning they can specify a key for participants to use to make the meeting private.

An icon on the menu bar (Mac) or system tray (PC) starts sharing your screen with anyone who has your Smart URL, which is based on your Dimdim ID (for example, http://my.dimdim.com/DimdimID). If you are already running a meeting, the Smart URL lets people instantly see your shared desktop, but if you aren’t running a meeting, people are pointed to your myScreen profile page where they can either wait for a meeting to begin or sign up for future meetings or webinars you have planned.

Once you share your desktop through myScreen, a handy screen controller appears that you can use to play or pause screen sharing (and is also a very visible reminder that you are sharing your screen). If you leave the meeting or if your browser has trouble, myScreen remains functional for your meeting attendees until you return to the Smart URL and resume your presentation.

When it comes to web conferencing, I’ve had the opportunity to try a number of the high-end soultions and the lower-end ones, and I still return to Dimdim amazed at how much functionality is packed into the free level. With the new myScreen feature, easy screen sharing is just a Smart URL away.

What are you using these days for your web conferencing, and how is it working for you?

In order to showcase their apps and services, many of these web conferencing companies offer free or affordable webinars on a variety of business topics to lure in new customers. Additionally, some companies hold free webinars to showcase their expertise. Either way, there are more and more free webinars offered every day. You can use them to gain knowledge from credible consultants, authors and other experts.

A caveat: When companies have something to sell, their webinars may tend to be skewed toward their products. Go for the webinars that include diverse topics and especially those where the experts are not from within the host company.

Here are some webinars on topics that can help you with your work.

1. Webinars on WebEx — free sessions hosted by experts using WebEx software. Upcoming webinars include a WebEx Q&A where you can ask a WebEx expert about holding large virtual events on December 8, 2009 and on December 15, “Reward & Recognition on a Limited Budget” led by Senior Consulting Partner Mark Paskowitz of The Ken Blanchard Companies.
2. New Marketing Labs — Coming up December 3 is “Measuring Success in Social Media” from the team at this reputable social media consulting firm led by Chris Brogan.
3. Radian6′s Twebinars — Sample topics include case studies of “engaged brands” like communications company Mullen and beverage company Molson Coors.
4. Sustainable Industries — This magazine holds free webinars about the issues of sustainability for anybody wanting to reduce their carbon footprint both (in both their personal and professional lives) as well as to learn about the latest trends in sustainability.
5. The IRS — Yes, even the IRS has gotten on the webinar bandwagon! Topics include tips on e-filing, tax updates (often based on specific states), and IRS Disaster Assistance.
6. Hubspot — While I do not endorse the Hubspot product, it does offer useful archived webinars like “5 Tips for Advanced B2B Business Blogging” and “How to Use Social Media to Manage Your Company Brand Online” There are also live webinars.
7. Awareness Networks — Watch archived videos of webinars with such industry leaders as Paul Gillin and Brian Solis.
8. Marketing Profs — For an annual membership fee, you can access archived webinars on topics ranging from “Monetizing the Long Tail of Search: Rethink Your Keyword Strategy” and “Love or Marketing? How Word-of-Mouth Will Save Your Brand.” Marketing Profs also holds live webinars including webinars on how to succeed with webinars.
9. Constant Contact — This email marketing company offers live webinars on email marketing, event marketing and online surveys. (Disclosure: I am a paying customer of Constant Contact).
10. Small Business Administration — The SBA has a series of small business training webinars covering finance and accounting, business planning and business startup, among other topics. You can also find webinars offered for free by local SBAs by state.

Virtual events company On24 takes webinars a huge leap further by sponsoring — and providing the platform for — virtual summits such as last month’s Social CRM Virtual Summit, essentially an all-day series of webinars and webcasting.

Webinars are a convenient way to learn best practices, hear case studies and hear from some of the world’s top experts in their field, all from the comfort of your office, your home or anywhere.

What webinars have you attended that you recommend?

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Dimdim Webinar is very easy to use for attendees, as unlike other web conferencing products, you don’t need to sign up or install any software or plugins to join a conference. Hosts also don’t need to install any software, and they get access to an impressive array of features including screen-sharing, web site co-browsing, webcam video, text chat, audio and whiteboard tools. You can customize the look and feel of the webinar to match your corporate branding. Hosts can record webinars and get access to an analytics package for tracking who attended and how they interacted during the event. The app feels quite quick in use; joining an event is fast, and switching between presentations is snappy. 

A useful feature is the Webinar Widget, which you can embed on your site (or elsewhere, like your Facebook Page, for example), promoting the event and letting attendees register. The widget automatically changes over time — while the event is in progress, attendees can join through the widget. After the webinar has finished, you can configure the widget to promote a transcript and/or recording of the event.

Didim Webinar is competitively priced at $828 per year, or $75 per month, and is free to try for 30 days. After the 30-day trial, if you don’t wish to sign up to Webinar Edition, you can continue to use Dimdim Free, which is limited to 20 attendees but otherwise has full functionality.

Have you tried Dimdim? How do you think it compares with WebEx and GoToMeeeting?

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Now, Yugma has just announced several improvements to its free and paid plans that can make a big difference for those who regularly use this application. At the top of the list of improvements is a fix for a bone I had picked before.

Room for more meeting participants in Yugma’s free version was at the top of my wish list for version 4.0 when I wrote about it last month. Yugma has historically only allowed 10 meeting participants in its free version, while the open source free conferencing application Dimdim has routinely allowed 20 participants. That shortcoming has been addressed, and you can now have 20 participants in a free Yugma conference.

There are also a number of changes to the paid Yugma plans, including a 25 percent reduction in the cost of the Yugma Pro plan, which is now available for $14.95 a month. The paid versions of Yugma allow for very large groups of meeting participants and the lower prices may attract many people, but I think a lot of web workers will be happy with the 20-participant threshold that Yugma Free now offers. Among the new service additions, there is also an inexpensive option for putting on webinars, at $19.95 a month for all Yugma Pro subscribers.

If you haven’t upgraded Yugma in a while, definitely use the latest version 4.0. Among other conveniences, you can invite people to online meetings without requiring them to have downloaded and installed Yugma. Some of the lowest prices now available for Yugma services are only availabe until February 15th, so if you’re interested, look into the additions listed here.

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Here are some of the other bells and whistles in the new version.

I downloaded version 4.0 and installed it as an upgrade in about two minutes. As you soon as it’s installed, you get a prompt to sign in and start a session.  The ease of initiating sessions remains one of the strong points of the application.

In addition to the new Viewer for people who don’t have Yugma installed, version 4.0 brings a Linux Beta version that allows Linux users to host meetings and share desktops. Other free conferencing applications are catering to Linux users, so this is a good move.

Another notable feature in version 4.0 is a Microsoft Outlook plug-in. Many of us Windows users out there have to use Outlook whether we like it or not. With the new plug-in you can either host or join a meeting from within Outlook. This is especially nice if you manage your meeting schedule in Outlook’s calendar and send out meeting notifications from it.

A few of the new features are found only in the paid version of Yugma, Yugma Pro. Only Yugma Pro gets improved annotation tools, for example. This is in keeping with Yugma’s strategy of offering an appealing free version, but more functionality in its paid versions.

Although Yugma does come in paid versions that offer features like meetings for very large numbers of people, most web workers will find everything they need in the free version. One limitation Yugma still has is that the free version only supports 10 people in a meeting. The open source conferencing application Dimdim allows you to have 20 participants for free, and Dimdim also lets you record meetings for no fee.

Still, Yugma is a standout for the instant messaging-like ease it brings to online conferences, and the new Viewer feature that means no download for meeting participants adds to that simplicity. Inviting people to meetings in Yugma has always felt very much like starting an IM conversation from a buddy list, and the Viewer means that you can reach out to people who aren’t on your list and don’t even have Yugma.

You can download the new version for Mac, Windows or the beta for Linux here.

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Dimdim for Online Meetings. Dimdim is widely regarded for its ability to host online meetings including up to 20 people–for free. The latest  version of this free, open source application added many new features including letting you record your meetings and share playback URLs.

The recording feature in Dimdim is not found in most other popular freeware online meeting applicatons, such as Yugma (although I remain a big fan of Yugma). Many of the freeware online meeting applications also limit you to only 10 concurrent participants at one time. Mac, Windows and Linux users can use Dimdim.

AbiWord for an Alternative Word Processor. AbiWord is one of my favorite free, open source applications. I wrote a review of the newest version over on the OStatic blog.

AbiWord is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It has a much lighter footprint than other word processors, and if you’re used to using Microsoft Word you’ll feel particularly at home but appreciate how light and fast AbiWord is. If you work on a cross-platform basis with other web workers, it’s also a good choice, and supports all essential file formats.

Scribus, for Flexible Desktop Publishing. Scribus is a very respected free and open source desktop publishing application, which I wrote up previously here. This is a great application to reach for when you want to do logos, booklets, brochures, and other prettier-than-usual documents.

On Scribus’ site, you can find links to many extensions and add-ons that add value to the core program. Scribus is also good for PDF creation, You won’t find quite the number of features found in proprietary applications such as InDesign, but for most common desktop publishing tasks, Scribus gets the job done well.

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Enter DimDim. Its no-install web collaboration free Open Source shared desktop/whiteboard/PowerPoint or PDF presentation service works well via an Adobe Flash plugin. The Open Source business model allows for a free service (20 attendees max). But you may want to spend $99 a year to get the Pro service to customize the interface with your own logo and have up to 100 attendees. There is also an Enterprise edition with even more features.

Steve Chazin, Chief Marketing Officer (love that title!) of DimDim took me through a demo of the service that will launch next week.

What was remarkable was that while he was on a PC using Internet Explorer and I was on a Mac using FireFox, as soon as I clicked the attend link in his email, it just worked. Fast. No fuss, no muss. None of the death by lag or weird color shifts I’ve been tormented with by other web collaboration services. DimDim takes care of the plumbing so you can actually spend your time collaborating, or reviewing, or learning.

DimDim, which has been in private beta since its debut at DemoFall07 will launch a public beta April 10th. The company plans to extend video support beyond the presenter and ramp up other features like providing the option to store and replay completed collaborations.

In one of my other roles in life I work with a lot of small software companies, also known as microISVs. I can see how they could quickly start using the free hosted version of DimDim to do remote training classes on their software for their customers, assuming they could resist the urge to download the full source code and start tinkering/extending.

Check out our overview of other collaboration packages. How do you think DimDim will compare?

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