Web business mail

A Canadian start-up is offering a way to do local searches from within AIM or Live Messenger through a free service called Poynt. Multipled Media's Poynt service lets you search for local businesses and view listings on a map all within the IM window. Last week, the company added the ability to search for movie listings and watch trailers. Poynt displays local business listings on a map in Windows Live Messenger and AIM.(Credit: Multiplied Media) It wasn't immediately obvious to me why I would want to do a local search in IM rather than toggle over to a Web browser, and an analyst agreed with me to some extent. ***

How much do you rely upon services that are out of your control?  If you’re like most web workers it’s probably quite a bit.  We covered this topic in January, but the recent failures of Yahoo! Mail and Microsoft Live Hotmail have resurfaced the call to have backup solutions in place if your online email provider is unavailable for any reason. For those of us who depend on web based mail such as ***

While much has been said about Google Apps for domains as an alternative to Microsoft Exchange or Office Live, Google’s suite is most compelling for distributed businesses or groups that do not want to center their email and collaboration around Microsoft’s desktop software. With Gmail’s outstanding spam filter, document collaboration, easy configuration and reliable email independent of the website host, there’s a lot to like about Google Apps. But it also has its quirks. I recently deployed Google Apps to our nonprofit organization of 10 users, taking advantage of Google’s program that offers the free Education edition to qualified US-based 501(c)3 nonprofits. ***

Well, It doesn't appear that Microsoft will be taking direct aim at the iPhone on Tuesday. Rather, the software maker is playing to its strengths, announcing a new piece of server software to help businesses manage a company's worth of smartphones. That doesn't mean Microsoft isn't interested in say, adding a full Web browser into Windows Mobile, according to Scott Horn, a general manager in Microsoft's mobile device unit. "Do I see a path where we are going to have a phenomenal browsing experience," Horn said. "Yes, I do." But the bulk of Microsoft's announcements for Tuesday focus on the company's enterprise strengths. ***

This morning Web-SMS service Joopz is launching a new Outlook plug-in that turns your desktop e-mail client into a one-stop SMS hub. Once tied into your Joopz account, you can send and receive text messages like you would e-mail. The tool also syncs up with your Outlook contacts, to let you send notes to anybody with a phone number. (Credit: MobileSphere) The service is flouting the new plug-in as a handy way to keep in touch with friends, but for business users who use SMS to communicate with their colleagues while out on the road, this could be a handy, finger-saving tool for those with their PC handy. ***

Small-and medium-sized businesses are the hot target markets right now, whether it’s voice and broadband or web services. The biggest opportunity, however, seems to be in hosted email, as Yahoo’s (YHOO) $350 million bet on Zimbra and Google’s (GOOG) Apps initiative demonstrate. Rackspace, a San Antonio, Tex.-based managed hosting company, today made its own move to tap the opportunity by acquiring eight-year-old Webmail.us of Blacksberg, Va. ***

A few months ago, my co-worker Stephen Shankland took a look at a preproduction Ooma--the pay-once-and-you"re-done phone service that"s going on sale for real today. His experience setting up the Ooma hardware wasn"t the best. I just got one of these gizmos myself and checked it out here at the CNET office. I found it to be pretty straightforward to get running, although my setup was much simpler than his. My take: This is a very cool, and very well-priced product. It"s also technologically fascinating. It"s not just a VOIP box. I set up my Ooma by plugging it into the Ethernet in my office and to a spare telephone. That was the extent of it. After a few moments of blinking, the Ooma box settled down, and I was able to dial out straightaway. ***

Microsoft is bringing its Windows Live services together under one roof, while acknowledging that many of its customers also spend time down the street at rivals" houses. The Windows Live services suite, a beta version of which is expected to be released late Wednesday, brings together Microsoft"s desktop programs for sharing photos, instant messaging, sending e-mail and posting blogs. Although Microsoft hopes to eventually win more converts to its services, many of its newly gathered-together desktop tools also work with competitor"s offerings. The Windows Live Mail desktop program, for example, connects to Windows Live Hotmail, but also to nearly all other major e-mail services such as those from Google and Yahoo, for instance. Likewise, Windows Live Writer can be used to upload blogs to Windows Live Spaces, but also to other major blog sites. ***

SunRocket, a voice over IP provider, told employees on Monday that it"s shutting down, according to several reports from former employees. The company"s Web site is still up, but its customer service line has this recording: "We are no longer taking customer service or sales calls. Goodbye." An internal memo from Sonya Jefferson, director of routing and carrier services for SunRocket was posted on the GigaOm blog earlier Monday. "Unfortunately this email contains very bad news. We have just been informed that any and all last ditch efforts to keep operations running as well as a potential sale of the company have not gone through and that SunRocket will cease operations at COB today. As such, today is my last day and everyone else you may have worked with at SunRocket. ***

SAN MATEO, Calif.--Spurred by customer demand, Zimbra has completed a version of its open-source calendar and e-mail server software for Canonical's Ubuntu version of Linux. Zimbra offers two versions of its server software, the free Open-Source Edition and the certified, supported and fuller-feature derivative called the Network Edition for paying customers. The Network Edition previously was available just for Red Hat's Linux, ***

I admit that like many, I longed for an iPhone immediately after watching Steve Jobs introduce it last January. Apple has the uncanny knack of introducing features that until demo’ed by Steve Jobs, you never heard of, but from that moment on you realize that you can’t be productive again without it. Then reality sets in. One of those “now that I know I want it, I must have it” features on the iPhone is visual voicemail. See all of your messages in an email-like list that you can browse through, instead of listening to messages in the order they were saved. I still want it. ***

By Narendra Rocherolle CTRL (or Apple) A and then delete! Just kidding. Are you drowning in email? Is your inbox a source of constant low level stress? Over the last year, David Allen’s GTD has completely changed my work habits and I am now a happier, more efficient, less anxious web worker. My complete system involves a physical inbox and simple file structure, 30 Boxes for my calendar and contextually tagged to do lists, and trusty Apple Mail. Of course, any combination of web or desktop apps will suffice. ***

At the flick of a finger from team 37signals, the switch went live on Highrise yesterday afternoon. We dropped the news back in February that 37signals, the founders of the popular Basecamp project manager, were getting ready to launch a new online contact manager. Unfortunately we didn’t get to try it out back then, but have been playing with this online contact management tool as soon as we discovered the launch yesterday. We think it’s going to make a lot of people happy, especially those who are satisfied with 37signals’ other web applications. Through Highrise, users ***

GrandCentral, the cell phone enhancement service we covered last year, is adding really handy customizable instant call widgets to their service next week. The new widgets work a little bit like Jaxtr"s widget we checked out in December. You can create customized voicemail widgets with personalized greetings for your callers. There are three different styles of widgets to choose from, and they can be placed on social networking profiles, blogs, or Web sites. GrandCentral is also adding a way to share your voicemail with other people by letting you embed it like you would with their call widgets. ***

After months of planning to kill off the Hotmail name, Microsoft has decided to keep the venerable brand, as it works to overhaul its free Web e-mail service. Microsoft said on Thursday that the revamped service, still in beta testing phase, is being renamed "Windows Live Hotmail" rather than the originally planned "Windows Live Mail." In a blog posting, Senior Product Manager Richard Sim said some people had found the name change confusing. "As we prepare to launch the final version of our new Web mail service, we recognize the importance of ensuring that our 260-plus million existing customers come over to the new service smoothly and without confusion," Sim said. "By adopting the name 'Windows Live Hotmail,' we believe we're bringing together the best of both worlds--new and old. ***

A lot of "unified messaging" services have been foisted on us in the last 10 or so years, but few have really gotten traction. At DemoFall, I checked out some very interesting phone-messaging applications, all of which looked useful by themselves, but it made my head hurt to think about using them in combination. One other service that launched at the show, GrandCentral, looked even more immediately useful than the messaging services, and I expect it will grow to incorporate many of their features. GrandCentral is pitched as "One number for life." When you sign up, you get a new phone number. ***

Skype has enhanced its popular Net phone application with two new premium features: SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail. Both have been available in limited tests but are now ready for widespread use for the Windows, Linux, Pocket PC and Mac OS X versions of Skype's free software, which has just reached the 100 million download mark and boasts 35 million registered users. SkypeIn allows users to buy up to three phone numbers in eight countries--Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. People can call them at those numbers from standard or mobile telephones. Skype Voicemail, as the name implies, records messages from callers. ***

You might have heard about AJAX, a term recently coined by by Jesse Garrett, co-founder of San Francisco consultancy Adaptive Path, for a group of existing Web development technologies like JavaScript and Dynamic HTML. AJAX has gained fame through Google's use of older technologies to build its newest applications such as Google Maps and Gmail. ***

Net phone phenom Skype is preparing to expand its menu of paid services, hastening its efforts to evolve from a free provider of niche services into a profitable company that could give industry giants a run for their money. The Luxembourg-based upstart has so far signed up 29 million registered users for its free Net phone calling software--a unique version of voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP--making it one of the fastest-growing services on the Net. Now it's aiming to milk profits from its swelling ranks of freeloaders with paid services that promise to make its Net-only product significantly more useful to consumers--and potentially more lethal to traditional phone providers. Last July, Skype launched a paid service called SkypeOut that lets subscribers make calls from the Internet to the traditional phone network. ***

Yahoo on Wednesday began blocking Cerulean Studios' Trillian software from communicating with its instant messaging service in its latest step to fence its popular client from third-party integrators. Beginning at about 6 p.m. Wednesday, Yahoo changed its instant messaging language to prevent third-party services, such as Trillian, from accessing its service. Like previous statements, the company said the block is meant as a pre-emptive measure against spammers from its Yahoo Messenger service. "Spammers are being aided by entities that are abusing our systems, where they effortlessly gain knowledge of pathways and back-alley access to send spam," Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said. A Trillian spokesperson did not immediately return an e-mail seeking comment. Trillian software essentially folds in multiple IM clients under one interface. ***