The World Is A Small Place When You Can Share Your Desktop
We work with people from around the world - customers, vendors, freelancers, partners, colleagues, trainers, Etc. In the past, communicating with people over the Internet was limited. Email and phone only goes so far. But recently, screen sharing applications have really reduced this communication gap. And what does this have anything to do with SEO? It doesn’t. Except that if you have a website and are trying to hire an SEO or a freelancer to do your work, you should be considering the use of one of these tools and ask them to explain what they are doing on your website.
Often times, SEO’s do work that is cryptic to you as webmasters. These tools will help your SEO’s explain what they are doing to you. It will also ensure better accountability.
So what are these great tools that I am talking about?
1. http://www.Webex.com - Bought by Cisco recently. They are THE best screen sharing application. Period. They are miles ahead of everyone else in this game. Their screen/application/desktop sharing is almost realtime and their features are the most advanced. Ease of use is amazing. Interface is really well thought out. However, they are the most expensive one too. As you add more meetings, the cost of using Webex can pile up. Starts at $35/month.
2. http://www.GoToMeeting.com: Like Webex. just a little less sophisticated than Webex though. In Screencast software, the compression/decompression algortihms are the key. GoToMeeting is second only to Webex in this case. Slightly cheaper than Webex as well.
3. http://DimDim.com - FREE: Now, this is my favorite. They were launched in late 2007 in Beta and recently launched themselves fully. Actually, one of the senior members of this team is a good friend of mine. The best part about this software - It’s FREE. Yes, they are the only ones that offer this functionality for free. They are still behind the paid users as far as features are concerned but their screen sharing seems to be flawless. I had some trouble using the audio and the screencast at the same time. No big deal. I used Yahoo Messenger Chat for Audio and DimDim for desktop screenshare. Smart huh?
On the same lines, another great software tool is Camtasia Studio. It helps you create quick videos of your screen activity. I can totally see this become the standard for documenting user manuals/guides in the future (already I see video demos of most software) everywhere.
Good luck sharing your desktops and collaborating with your team. Now you have no excuse not to try them out!
Thanks,
Srini
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