Screen-sharing's long tail

In a column last week, I wished for a simple screen-sharing solution that would Embrace Constraints and Do One Thing Well. Apparently I'm not the only one who feels those needs. Many folks responded with suggestions, both on my blog and in email.

The names of a few of the usual suspects came up: Acrobat Connect (formerly Macromedia Breeze), and GotoMeeting. But when I reviewed my correspondence, I counted no fewer than nine dark horses that I'd never heard of:

Beam2Present
BeamYourScreen
CrossLoop
GatherPlace
Glance
LiveLook
LogMeIn
ScreenShare
Yugma

Although I can scarcely begin to evaluate all these, there may be some value in reporting the list to those of you who might want to. Based on the length of this list, as well as the anecdotal feedback I've received, it seems fair to conclude that the attractor for all this entrepeneurial energy is a need that the incumbents still aren't satisfying.

Finally, a mea culpa. In the column I said:

I've used every screen-sharing system...
As if. True, I may have used all the well-known products at one time or another. But there's a ton of action out on the long tail of this category.


Former URL: http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/11/21.html#a1566