Earlier this week we launched Cc:Betty at the DEMO conference. It was a great way to condense a coming out party. Lots of great press emerged from it, prospective partners, and most importantly users of the product. We're getting some great feedback and some great feature requests. There are some obvious features that we had on our list, that we just couldn't squeeze out in time for D day, but we'll be adding them shortly, i.e. the ability to merge mailspaces, search, skins.
A few people have said to me "Oh, this is like Xobni isn't it?" The other one I've heard a couple times is "Hey...is this another version of I Want Sandy?" The answer to both of those is....NO. Let me address one at a time.
Xobni - I don't have Outlook so I don't use Xobni, but I've seen it in action, and I think it's great. It's an Outlook plugin that allows you to search on a person and get details on your interaction with them, including the messages between you, attachments, etc.This helps individuals dig their way through their email. Jeff, their CEO was at Sipphone when I was working on Ooma, and then he was at Yahoo while I was at Jangl. I like and respect him for years now. I also know Frank, their lead developer who I know is a good dude.
I Want Sandy - Sandy doesn't exist anymore, but I tried it out the first time somebody told me my idea resembled it. She was solving your organizational problems like calendaring, using email as an approach. Coincidentally, I knew Rael, Sandy's boss back in the 90s. I was in my 20s and selling internet gear, and Rael was a sharp guy at a regional ISP called DNAI. I ended up selling them some Netopia routers, and later some Livingston/Lucent remote access boxes, and then later a Redback DSL box. I'd always liked those guys.
Cc:Betty - Betty turns email threads into a rich, social and engaging "mailspace". While doing so she parses information such as people, places, photos, dates and other files and represents it all, in a much more uncluttered and consumable way. She saves groups of people time, but answering the questions of "who said what when?" and "what do I really need to know about this email conversation?".
So whereas Xobni represents personal value about searching people in email, Betty represents group (and thus social) value for collaborating efficiently. And whereas Sandy used email to help you get your calendar in order, Betty uses your email to make email better.
The only thing in common between Sandy and Betty, really are that they are both personas. Sandy was a hipster assistant it seemed. Betty is a late 1950s secretary (the days before the admin assistant), she's got a ridiculous smile, reminiscent of characters of that ad age. That was an age of optimism (keep in mind we came up with this during the worst financial melt down in our times). Anyway, I think the persona approach works to understand it, as opposed to dubbing a bot or an agent; that would have only served the planet of silicon valley I think. Besides, how many times do you get an opportunity to name a company, the very same behavior you're looking for?
Let's hope this time around, we don't have a Jangl/Jaxtr/Jajah/Jaduka/Jingle convention on our hands!
Technorati Tags: Cc:Betty, I want sandy, Xobni, Rael Dornfest, Jeff Bonforte
