In Giving up on Instant Messaging, long time Instant Messaging user Luis Suarez notices that his IM usage has shifted from AOL, Yahoo, MSN to Skype, Google Talk, and Damaka. I’ve noticed the same. I rarely message people on MSN Messenger anymore, but choose Skype or Gizmo Project instead.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
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Thanks a lot, Alec, for the pingback and for dropping by over at my weblog elsua. Indeed, I can certainly relate to what you have mentioned above. In fact, I, too, have been trying Gizmo Project for a couple of months now and although at the beginning my experiences with it were very good things have become a bit strange since it takes quite some time to log me in, whenever it can, because in most cases if I try to connect five times four of those it would fail with an error message. (Quick Update: while I was trying to comment on your weblog post I launched Gizmo Project again, it auto-updated itself and it allowed me to log in straight through again !)
I have been keeping up to date with the new releases but the problems seem to be persistent, so in the end I decided to move to other, more robust tools in my case, like the ones I mentioned over in my weblog. And so far I haven't encountered a single problem. Maybe it is the time again to give another try to Gizmo Project. Hopefully, this time around it will work as it is supposed to. And as such it would be added to my current list of VoIP tools.
Your most welcome, Luis!
I stopped using MSN, cause they are blocking it at work
Yahoo! too!
Fortunately, they haven't discovered Skype or Gtalk yet
Randy, I am actually quite surprised to read that over at your workplace they are blocking all those IM tools, since I would think they would be very beneficial to keep in touch with customers who may not have access to whatever IM option you may be using in your Intranet. Otherwise, how are you supposed to collaborate further ? Through just e-mail and phone calls? That sounds like a relatively drastic choice to me, I would think, specially since more and more we would all want to have instant access to experts and their information. Unless, of course, there may be other reasons for that decision. Either way, I hope that move is a temporary one.
Maybe it depends on the business one is in. I'm an attorney and use IM almost daily with a lot of my clients. Most are still using AIM, Yahoo IM or MSN IM at work. I have not yet had one client who has given me a Skype address for IM. Another thing worth noting. Many IM systems do not provide a lot of confidentiality. I use AIM through Trillian which does encrypt the communication. I suspect Skype probably does the same.
Alec,
I have been using damaka and I can tell you that it is the best in security and quality – much better than Skype and GTalk. (Skype's quality has been going down since the eBay-Skyle deal). GTalk looks like a dev project that Google just decided to throw out there for whatever reason. I was expecting Google to be more thorough. Skype definitely still leaps and bound ahead of both GTalk and damaka, but I am sure damaka will catch up in due time. Their direct peering model (as suggested by the PODCast on their website – http://www.damaka.com) does look better than Skype model. Specially with all the buzz over enterprise ban of Skype, damaka has everything to gain. I love the features and I would recommend it to everyone.
Download damaka from http://www.damaka.com
Alec,
Check out the latest news out from damaka:
"damaka Launches Operator and Service Provider version of its Peer-to-Peer Personal Softswitch (TM)"
Press release is here: http://www.damaka.com/news.htm
I downloaded damaka form mortel.com and it looks really really cool… love the interface and all the features are cool too. I also purchased the PSTN credit to try the PSTN call quality and I am totally impressed… damaka's call quality is absolutely incredible… better than any other similar product in the market today…
seems like damaka has a great vision, leardership and business plan… this is the perfect market to play the voip card… not many companies have the ability to do what damaka has done as mentioned in the PR….
well done damaka!
Damaka Home page: http://www.damaka.com
Mortel Jazz: http://www.mortel.com
For some reason, I am finding that file transfer happens about 4-5 x faster on damaka than applications like yahoo or msn etc…. Does anyone else having the similar experience and any clue why??
I heard these guys are launching peer to peer desktop sharing. Does this mean I can see the powerpoint presentation of my friends in another city? That will be totally cool. Does this mean I now longer have to pay money monthly to webex? I plan on keeping a close watch on damaka. It's great to see an underdog with a pioneering technology and rooting for them to grow. Go SIP players go!
I haven't looked at Damaka in quite some time Hopper. Check it out and let us know what you find…
I just tried the peer-to-peer desktop sharing. I clicked on a button, waited for a few second, and could see the desktop of a friend in another city. I was kind off embarrassed when someone tried to see my desktop because I had a few "personal" pictures open that I didn't want the other person to see. (oops…). So yes, it works. And yes, be careful on what you have open on your desktop before you share it with others.
ROFL!
I love damaka IPTV option. Its pretty cool. damaka is truly a collaboration paltform. I wonder what other feature the damaka guys can add to this application.