MeGlobe: Communication Multiplied

MeGlobe is an online multiclient messenger service that allows you to talk to contacts all over the world, regardless of language barriers. It translates your IM and sends it along to the recipient in near real-time, but don’t expect this service to be as good as the Babelfish from Hitchiker’s Guide. The client is still in “beta,” and features a reporting tool so you can point out errors in the translation engine, which then leads to improvements in said engine.

This is a great service if you have to work directly with technical staff in a geographically remote location and don’t want to have to go through a translator for every little communication. While the translations may not be perfect, they should give you enough context to get the job done.

TinEye: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

This is one of those services which seems to have come in answer to one of my many “I wish there was thing that…” thoughts. TinEye is a reverse image search, meaning that it can use any picture you might have lying around to find out more about said picture, including its original source, whether any larger resolutions exist, and where it has been used, modified, etc.

I find the higher resolution finder to be most useful, but if you’re a photographer or graphic designer, you may be interested more in seeing how your work is being used. Illuminating, to say the least.

snitch.name: Find Everyone, Everywhere

If you do a Google search for someone, what usually won’t appear are their social network profiles and pages. Hence the need for snitch.name, a search engine specifically designed to comb social networks for your target. Just type in someone’s name, hit enter, and see their Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. profiles pop up, so long as they’re available and publicly viewable.

This is a great app to use if you want to find your friends on other networks you belong to, or if you’re looking to try to make a new contact for networking purposes. Note that even though it might be able to find someone, it’s still up to you to convince them that you’re a worthwhile contact for them to make.

Are My Sites Up?: Remain Vigilant Without Refresh

If you have a number of domains under your watchful eye, like myself, then you’re probably at least somewhat paranoid about those sites going down. Especially if you use them to do business. This web tool allows you to register your sites so that you receive email alerts when they go down, for whatever reason.

Won’t necessarily help the site come back online quicker, but it will let you open up that issue ticket/fire off that angry email to tech support in a more timely manner than you might otherwise be able to.

That’s four very different, but very useful web apps that could benefit many different kinds of web workers in many different ways. Two essential truths that bind these tools, and web workers together: We all need the web, and we all need other people.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why Google Should Fear the Social Web
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce

Today’s smartphones can become complete messaging systems that keep the worker up to date and in touch with clients and coworkers.  The Blackberry has long been considered one of the most complete messaging tools available and they have recently made great inroads into the marketplace as a result.

The newest Blackberry to come along is the Storm and a unique smartphone it is without even a keyboard to get in the way.  Will the Blackberry Storm fill the needs of the average web worker or is it just fluff?

Let’s take a look at what it offers and kick the tires.

The Storm is a phone with a big screen that is all touchy-feely like the iPhone and foregoes a keyboard.

At the heart of the phone is the core Blackberry feature set which is probably the best messaging platform on the market. It’s important to not overlook that the Storm is a Blackberry at its core even though it is a nice bright shiny gadget like the iPhone.  The messaging system works flawlessly as you would expect from a Blackberry and the web worker will soon fall in love with that system.  The messaging encompasses email and there is a full IM offering on board that makes it a joy to keep in touch with team members.

It doesn’t matter if you use Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, Blackberry Messenger or Windows Live Messenger, the Storm has you covered.  The notification system is ingrained into the Blackberry platform so if you get a message from a contact on any of these IM platforms the Storm will show an indication just like email.  This makes sure you are never out of touch when you need to be there.

How does messaging work without a keyboard?

RIM has incorporated technology they call SurePress that provides an on-screen keyboard that provides tactile feedback.  It’s not quite the same as typing on a phsyical phone keyboard but it’s pretty darn close and that’s where the magic comes into play.  It feels so natural to type an email out on this tactile keyboard that you quickly forget you’re not pressing real keys because they feel real.  In our evaluation we find that we create far more detailed email messages because the typing experience is so good.

When you use the Storm in horizontal orientation you get a full QWERTY keyboard with all the keys where you expect them.  Type a message while holding the Storm vertically and you are presented with the Blackberry SureType keyboard which puts two letters on each key.  This works surprisingly well as the Blackberry uses a predictive system that is uncanny in producing the correct word.  We found we could quickly use this keyboard one-handed like any other phone.

The Blackberry Storm comes equipped with software from Dataviz which makes it possible to work with Office documents right on the phone. We all know how common an occurrence it is to get an email with a Word document attachment for example and with this software you can not only review Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents but you can edit them right on the phone.  This makes the Storm a full work platform right out of the box.

Many web workers do a fair bit of traveling and the Blackberry Storm being released by Verizon is a full global communications device.  Verizon includes a SIM in the box that provides voice and data capability while traveling abroad.  You will never be out of touch with the Storm in your pocket.

The one area that Storm falls short for some is the lack of WiFi. RIM made a decision to not include the ability to work in WiFi hotspots and that may be a factor for some.  The phone uses the excellent Verizon 3G network to forego the lack of WiFi but for those who work out of the coverage area it might not be enough.  In our evaluation of the Storm in urban areas with 3G coverage the lack of WiFi has not been an issue but it’s something that each of us will have to consider.

We would have to say that the Blackberry Storm will certainly be a good communications solution for most web workers, based on our hands-on evaluation.  It provides a full web browsing experience that almost rivals that of the iPhone and we find that pretty darn good.  When you couple that with the Blackberry messaging capability we find the Storm to be a great solution for the professional.

The phone will run $199 with a two-year contract with Verizon when it’s released in the next day or so.

For a more thorough look at the Storm check out our review complete with video coverage of the phone over on jkOnTheRun.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide
• Transient Apps: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 2
• Rogue Devices: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 1

It is outside of the office where things can get a bit tricky. I’ve never really been a fan of text messaging on my mobile phone. While it can work well for an occasional status update or a quick message, using it as a conversational tool has never seemed all that efficient to me. And while IM on the mobile phone exists, the challenge is the same as on the desktop, maintaining multiple accounts and programs that work with the various services I need.

Enter Mundu IM – a cross platform messaging client that helps keeps me connected on my mobile device.

Mundu IM works with MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk and Jabber which pretty much covers all the bases for me. The devices that it works with is also extensive. I had no issue downloading and installing on my Windows Smartphone and versions also exist for Pocket PC, Palm, Blackberry and Sony Ericsson. A beta release for iPhone is also available and Symbian is coming soon. I tested the Windows Smartphone version but features can vary by device so be sure to read the specifics about yours.

I find the Mundu interface to be clean and easy to navigate. There was a bit of setup time to get all the accounts entered and things set up how I wanted them, but after just a few minutes I was able to get familiar with how to accomplish most tasks. It really does a great job of giving me access to most if not all of the features I would have in each of these desktop clients.

I particularly love the Quick text feature (right) which lets me quickly add full sentence responses with just a few keystrokes. The keyboard on my device is good but for frequently used items this is a great time saver.

On my Smartphone, I can stay connected even while on the phone or in another application which is great. I get notified when new messages come in or when folks log in or out. The cross conferencing feature lets me invite users from different IM services to conference in a single chat window. I can also send files and photos to any user I am connected to, as well as maintain an archive of conversations so I can review or act on them later.

The proliferation of devices with a keyboard is really pushing the adoption of mobile instant messaging, and with so many folks already used to the IM interface, getting others on board is easy. Obviously, you’ll want to either have an unlimited data plan or closely monitor your bandwidth to use this extensively. You just might be able to lower or lose your SMS plan though.

You can download a fully featured 5 day free trial of Mundu IM to see how well it works for you. If you like it, Mundu IM is a very affordable $11.00 – They call it a LifeTime use license but that price doesn’t include full version upgrades which may incur an additional upgrade charge.

Do you IM on your mobile? What do you use to stay connected?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Green IT’s Q4 Winners: Wind Power, Solar Power, Smart Energy
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce

Version 6 brought the Aqua look and feel to Microsoft’s client amongst other features, so what’s new in 7?

• A redesigned buddy list with a search-as-you-type box for locating contacts in large buddy lists.
• Aping iChat with integration of Bonjour contacts drawn from the user’s local network.
• Users can apply nicknames to their buddies, particularly useful for contacts who frequently (and irritatingly) change their screennames!

Notably for users connecting via a corporate Office Communication Server, Bonjour and searchable buddy-lists also extend to enterprise IM networks.

Strangely, Messenger for Mac 7 promises audio and video chat support, but only to corporate users – essentially those running Microsoft’s Office Communication Server, though the company has indicated it plans to extend this to all users in time. Providing enterprise support before consumer seems an odd choice, given that the bulk of usage will be with consumers.

As well as the new features, there are a number of minor aesthetic improvements, from more spacious chat windows, to cleaner notification windows and (ahem) a white outline around the application icon! Sadly, file transfer is as slow as ever (a 67k PDF took a minute!) though conversations with Y! Messenger users seem to be much more stable and less error-prone than before. So Steve Ballmer will be able to talk to Jerry Yang, but they better hope any contracts are teeny-tiny text files or better still emoticons!

Each release of MSN Messenger (and indeed other official clients) on either Windows or OSX seems like a missed opportunity. I don’t think we’ve seen any real innovation for close to a decade in IM clients.

Personally, I’d like to see…

• more sophisticated presence management – for example, taggable buddies rather than fixed categories so I can make myself invisible to colleagues and friends but remain available to family.
• a plug-in architecture enabling Microsoft to quickly add support for emerging messaging services such as GTalk, Twitter and Facebook.
• an extendable mail architecture – maybe I’d like the new mail indicator to show my Gmail inbox, not Hotmail.
• a hub of social networks buddy lists from Address Book, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Dopplr etc

Messenger for Mac 7 is an improvement, it works and it’s pretty, but the largest software company in the world can be bolder and can certainly do better.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks
• What Google’s Honeycomb Means for Apple and Microsoft