Signing Off, And What Does A TechCrunch Writer Actually Use?
This is my last post at TechCrunch as a full time writer (I may yet do the occasional guest post). It’s exactly 12 months to the day since I started writing here and the date seemed like a good time to go. I won’t bore you with a self indulgent retrospective; if you are interested in my reasons and thoughts I did a podcast with my old site The Blog Herald yesterday - listen to here.
We cover some amazing startups here at TechCrunch, and for every service we cover there’s probably a dozen we miss as well, given the hyper-inflated nature of the second great web boom. You can appreciate a service without ever actually going on to use it, but the better ones can change the way you interact with the web or run your working day. I thought as this is my last major post here that I’d share some of the services that I actually use. I started using most of them based on posts at TechCrunch, so if you like these turned out to be my practical standouts in the sea of noise.
Evernote has completely changed the way I deal with paper (yes, old fashioned paper). Its been described as everything from a scrap collection through to a bookmarking service, but at its core its a database service with industrial strength OCR capabilities. To use, you can clip data or a link, type a note, add a photo (with support for webcams) or scan info in. Everything added can be tagged and indexed, and is searchable via the text within each document, for example a wine label with no other information becomes searchable by every word on the label itself. I scan every paper bill or letter I receive, allowing me to shred/ dispose of them cutting down on the need to file things manually. More importantly it cuts out the need to have to go through my filing cabinet searching for the bill later. The service has a desktop client and web interface, so you have the security of knowing that your scanned documents always have a local copy, but if you’re at another computer or on the go, you can easily access the same data.
See Erick’s review here.
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Central Desktop Takes $7 Million
Central Desktop has taken a first round of $7 million from OpenView Venture Partners.
Central Desktop offers a web-based SaaS collaboration platform that allows business teams of all sizes to work virtually and seamlessly online. Central Desktop is pitched as providing “the richest set-of-tools available for business users with ease-of-use at a price-point, leveling the playing field for small and mid-size companies wishing to do business with enterprise partners and customers.”
The company has over 125,000 users and business teams currently using its tools. Central Desktop said it would use the funding to accelerate R&D, marketing and sales efforts into the SMB market.
Competitors include 37signals, JotSpot, Microsoft, WebEx, Daikana and Huddle.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Google Rips Down HuddleChat
Google showcased HuddleChat, a real-time chat application, as one of many test applications (directory here) to show off their new Google App Engine platform last night.
Some bloggers noted that the application was a rip off of Campfire, a 37Signals product. And 37Signals CEO Jason Fried used HuddleChat as a PR opportunity, telling ReadWriteWeb “We’re flattered Google thinks Campfire is a great product, we’re just disappointed that they stooped so low to basically copy it feature for feature, layout for layout…We thought that would be beneath Google, but maybe its time to reevaluate what they stand for.”
Frankly, the reaction is fairly ridiculous. But this is apparently a fight that Google doesn’t want to be involved in. They pulled the application and replaced it with the above notice.
I wonder if Darren Delaye, Braden Kowitz, and Kyle Consalus, the Google developers who created HuddleChat, had much of a say in the decision. And why, since HuddleChat is not an official Google product, was it Google that made the decision to pull it down and not the developers who created it? Google was very careful to say that they were not affiliated with HuddleChat while it was up - that, apparently, wasn’t the case.
As far as I’m concerned, this is the first case of censorship on the new Google App Engine platform, and a bad precedent.
Our test application for Google App Engine is here.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
37Signals Down – Looks Like Rackspace Is To Blame Again
37Signals is having a bad morning, according to their current home page image above. THey’re pointing fingers at their service provider, which was (and we believe still is) Rackspace. Last November they suffered a three hour outage along with other Rackspace customers.