Collaboration services targeted for the small business market often seem more like software suites than web-based services with deep linking capabilities and tag-based environments. For example, the new offering from HyperOffice focuses on features that are fundamental to small business operations but lacks the advanced capabilities that we see from a number of Enterprise 2.0 services. Is this a good thing? Is this due to the domination of document-based systems that have traditionally been such a part of the small business world? Sponsor We are torn on this one. We see a number of companies offering services such as real-time collaboration environments. Still, the portal mindset seems to have such a hold on the small business market. HyperOffice looks like it is providing a service that has value for the small business. But like others we have seen, HyperOffice feels monolithic. It provides the capability to create personal and group environments but extensions to the web are limited. In some respects this may be just the right approach. HyperOffice users may not want the capability to build data mashups and tie into services like Twitter. The company points out that the market is flooded with Web 2.0 style point tools. The HyperOffice platform is a one-stop shop. This may be smart as the company is targeting Microsoft Sharepoint and Lotus Notes users. A SaaS like HyperOffice may be enticing, perhaps even more because it has similar functionality to the offerings from the big players in the market. The HyperOffice UI resembles a Microsoft Office environment. The main page includes icons such as desktop, mail and calendar. The features are basic but provide a clear functionality for the user. HyperOffice has personal and group settings. Groups may share calendar items, collaborate on documents and other tasks. Additional features include tasks, notes, a wiki and the ability to search Google and Yahoo! from within the application. Here’s an overview of the service: Google Apps and Zoho provide a deeper web experience than HyperOffice. But there is definite value here for the company looking for an affordable, CRM service. Pricing starts at $7 per user, per month. Discuss

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Why Do Small Business Services Sometimes Lack Sophistication?

In just a few days at the SIGGRAPH Asia Conference , MIT’s Media Lab will present a revolutionary interface that allows users to manipulate on-screen images with the wave of their hand. While we’ve seen gestural interfaces through the accelerometers in our smart phones and gaming-related devices, this system is different. MIT’s bi-directional display interface (BiDi) screen is capable of capturing both touch and off-screen gestures through the use of embedded optical sensors. Sponsor According to the project team, “The BiDi Screen uses a sensor layer, separated a small distance from a normal LCD display. A mask image is then displayed on the LCD. When the bare sensor layer views the world through the mask, information about the distance to objects in front of the screen can be captured and decoded by a computer.” In the past ReadWriteWeb has covered Pattie Maes presentation of what she describes as “sixth sense” – a wearable interface where users interact with a camera, mirror and colored finger caps. We’ve also looked at other gesture-based interfaces like Microsoft’s Project Natal which encompass sensor-based cameras and voice recognition. Nevertheless, BiDi screen takes a different approach to spatial tracking. The system can be incorporated into a “thin LCD device” like a cellphone and it does not require the use of cameras, lenses, projectors or special gloves. For a complete list of BiDi project specifications or for a look at some of MIT’s video demos, check out the project website . Discuss

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Future Interfaces: Gestures, Light and the BiDi Screen

The Twitterati have spoken! Throughout 2009, a few tech topics got so much attention that they managed to make Twitter’s trends. Google Wave was one of the most notable of these, obviously, but what were the other subjects of such interest to Twitter-using geeks? Twitter has just released a list of the top 10 technology-related trending topics of the year; here’s what tweeps have been talking about. Sponsor 1. Google Wave The most-talked-about app of the year – on Twitter and likely in many other circles, was Google Wave. As invitations rolled out in waves, each initiate was given a limited number of invites to pass on to friends and colleagues. This left the twittersphere clamoring for Wave invites and drove the keyword into Twitter’s general trending topics on multiple occasions. If Wave did nothing else right, they certainly mastered the art of the viral marketing campaign. 2. Snow Leopard Apple fanboys (and girls) the world around rejoiced when the newest Mac operating system was released this year. Snow Leopard was announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in June 2008, which meant that Mac geeks had been waiting to buy their copies for more than a year by the time the OS hit shelves in August of this year. 3. Tweetdeck This Twitter app became wildly successful this year and made tech headlines for its Facebook and LinkedIn integration, its iPhone app (a strong competitor to challenge Tweetie 2), its themed interfaces, and more. 4. Windows 7 The longsuffering Windows users among us had long been suffering when Windows 7 was released this year. Better, smarter, faster and less buggy, the OS promised to be the answer to our prayers and a reason to hold our heads up in front of Mac users. Windows also had an interesting marketing campaign that kept their OS on the tips of tongues – and the top of trends – for several months running. 5. CES The Consumer Electronics Show, held each year in Las Vegas, is a gadget geek’s version of the AVN Awards, also held each year in Las Vegas. Coincidence? Most definitely. 6. Palm Pre Several years ago, geeks fell in love with the Treo. Then Palm devices kind of fell off the face of the earth and out of public favor until this year, when the company released the tiny touchscreen device known as the Pre. The first iteration of the device hasn’t yet become overwhelmingly popular, but the Pre definitely has its fans. 7. Google Latitude In 2005, location-based app Dodgeball was bought by Google. The Dodgeball creators went on to make Foursquare, and this year, Google replaced Dodgeball with Latitude, which very simply shows you where your friends are on Google Maps. Latitude could be the basis for more tricky applications in the future, but location tech in general can be a difficult technology to master. 8. #E3 Another yearly holy-grail-of-its-industry conference, E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is held in Los Angeles. This con is where gamer geeks die and go to heaven. 9. #amazonfail Amazon suffered public criticism this year when certain gay and lesbian books were removed from sales rankings for containing adult content. The trouble was, most of the titles in question weren’t “adult” in nature at all, leading media and the general public to the conclusion that Amazon execs were deeply and terribly homophobic. In the end, it turned out that a single Amazon employee in France set a Boolean flag on adult content from False to True, taking out 57,000 books in his wake. Whoopsie! 10. Macworld And finally, there was MacWorld. Steve Jobs was unable to make the event, and Apple announced that the 2009 con would be the last year the company would participate in the show. The company announced a few modest treats, including new versions of iLife and iWork, as well as a 17-inch MacBook. Apple further announced that music sold on iTunes would be DRM-free. And that’s it for Twitter’s top trends! Do you think the right topics got the most attention? What do you think would have been trend #11? Let us know your thoughts in the comments! Discuss

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Twitter’s Top 10 Tech Trends of 2009

Of all of the different types of marketing available, email advertising is the one that you have to be the most careful with. Since the majority of email that people receive is junk or spam, you want to make sure that you don’t wind up there. It can be an effective way to market your business, but only when used carefully so that you avoid getting tossed out with the trash.

Email marketing isn’t as popular as it used to be. Before people were inundated with spam emails and junk mail, they actually took the time to read the messages that they signed up for. Now, too many people just delete away messages like it’s nothing, and don’t pay attention to what they get. This is causing many businesses to find other ways to market their products.

If used properly, email advertising can be very effective. Email marketing campaigns will be different for everyone, but you need to make sure that you take the time to check them out for yourself and find the ones that work best. Use catchy titles and headlines so that your message isn’t tossed out.

If you’re looking for the best results with email marketing, consider working with professional marketing companies. These companies will be able to help you get the best marketing possible and develop a marketing plan that works. Any business can benefit from these services.

What email advertising does is it allows you to contact your customers on a personal level. You can talk to them one-on-one, make them feel more important, and tell them about special deals or great information in a forum where they truly feel appreciated. This is a great way to market if you use it to your advantage.

You should have a clear message in your email marketing. You also need a friendly demeanor and a direct purpose for sending messages. If people wanted a sales pitch, they’d go to a car dealer. They want a trusting person to tell them things that they need to know. That’s where you come in.

When you market your business effectively, your profits will benefit. You will see marked success from email marketing and other tools that you can use to promote and sell your business online. You can’t just build it and expect people to find it, because there are millions out there just like you, and you have to prove that you’re the best.

To learn more about email advertising or to find your business marketing solutions, visit www.Majon.com today.

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Facebook’s Privacy Move Violates Contract With Users

A few months ago Google rolled out Place Pages with the lofty vision of creating a webpage for every place in the world. In addition to a map-view of local businesses, users can access hours, transit stops, reviews and geo-tagged photos. As of today the company is offering a color-coded ranking system for specific aspects of a businesses’ services. The question is, does the new feature mark the beginning of the end for restaurant review sites? Sponsor While Yelp gives reviewers a chance to rank a business on a scale of 1-5 stars and Foodspotting ranks individual dishes, Google’s new ranking system aggregates comments from across the web based on specific keywords. At a moments glance, users can quickly view a restaurant’s food and service in relation to its ambiance and atmosphere. Even the smallest business with little to no web presence can produce useful results. For example, the comments at San Francisco’s El Metate Taqueria was enough to produce a ranking on salsa alone. In late November, ReadWriteWeb covered the launch of Google’s map-based coupon program where mobile users can access deals through Place Pages. Coupled with the fact that you can save your search results to your favorite maps, users may find less and less reason to visit location-based review sites. In your opinion can Google oust Yelp and Citysearch as the leader in business reviews? Let us know in the comments below. Discuss

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Google Adds Place-Ranking System, Should Yelp Be Afraid?

TechSmith , the makers of powerful screencast recording software Camtasia and screen capture app SnagIt, announced this morning that a beta version of SnagIt is now available for the Mac . The Windows version costs $50 but the Mac beta is free for now. It’s great. If you’ve used Skitch or Little Snapper , SnagIt seems much more full-featured. The best parts I’ve seen so far are far more font options and really easy composite image creation. Sponsor The company’s demo video is below. This is just beta software and hopefully it will be more stable and less clunky than early versions of TechSmith’s free cross-platform video and image product Jing Project. The recently released Camtasia for Mac was very well done and appears quite stable. One thing that’s missing is the ability to quickly post an image to Flickr or any other online site. That would be nice and is a feature that competitors offer. Easy click and drag resize is something that SnagIt could pick up from other services as well. All in all, though, this looks like a very nice product. Discuss

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SnagIt Goes Mac: Check Out The Best Screen Capture App Available