San Diego-headquartered Goowy (a Mark Cuban investment) just publicly launched the enhanced IM and storage products that I tested last month. Goowy users now have Meebo-like IM funtionality built directly into their Goowy desktop, and 1 GB of free online storage via a partnership with Box.net.
Goowy has also rolled out significant enhancements to their email client, including a three-pane view that looks and feels a lot like Outlook. Goowy is turning into an excellent desktop replacement – users can choose to use a Goowy email account or Pop in whatever email service they currently use (including Gmail). CEO Alex Bard tells me that over 100,000 people have logged in and used the Goowy email client in the last 90 days.
Everything is currently free…Goowy will layer in paid premium services down the road. You can also try Goowy without registering through their demo account.
Hey Mike,
Think you have a typo there..should be 1GB?
Steve
yeah. thanks. 1 MB of free online storage – not so impressive.
i love goowy and i think they are doing a great job…tons of features and the site runs really fast…but for some reason i have an account and i just don’t use it…something is missing that is preventing the site from reaching critical mass…100,000 users is nice, but nothing jaw dropping…
if myspace were smart they would realize their biggest competitive advantage is the amount of time their users spend on the site, most myspace users use the site as their primary channel of communication…if they evolved the “my account” page into something similar to Goowy…users would NEVER sign off! Rupert if your reading this…buy Goowy!
*Goes and signs up
One good thing of all this is web2.0 company collaboration. getting Box.net and Goowey together means that these companies don’t have to reinvent the wheel and can focus on their core competancies while increasing trafic and (hopefully) revenue.
Mike, sorry to be arrogant, but why will anyone shift into the goowy world? am i missing something or i am so 1.0 ?
I also like Goowy
Looks good. I guess there are bugs with the smileys. Some smileys just dont appear and sometimes a wrong ‘un is displyed.
The one problem, Ari Mir, to goowy might be it lacks speed. It has (relatively speaking) slow load times. Also the interface is not that great as a homepage. for example (even though i have not looked very deep) I can’t get it to load my screen directly, or if i can it still takes those few seconds that will constantly slow me down.
It also would be usefull if i could acess my gmail account, not just get it forworded ( again, i havn’t lookde very deep.).
The other part is for some people (the mass crowd) it doesnt pass all of the 5 second tests.
btw, Who needs games on their desktop anyways!? (if that is what they are going to use it for)
But like i said, even though it has a really nice interface, it is still slow comapred to google hompage, etc.
Frog29
looks good, but really has a little bugs. and it is not at all fast for me anyway.
Looking for more features esp. a free POP access
Frog29,
I’ve only visited the site from work, and we have a great broadband connection, BUT relative to other sites I visit at work, even blogs, I don’t consider Goowy slow.
Also, maybe this is my lack technical expertise, but how else do you propose pulling your mail from your GMAIL account if you don’t want to use POP access?
What i meant by the mail thing was just to have it link to an email in my gmail account using my account name and password (like in google homepage), in case this is stil lconfusing i want it to link directly to gmail, and the email there.
By speed, i’ve noticed that it takes 1-2 seconds to load soem pages, about 5 for others. I have a high sped cable connection, btw, but when i was looking at it earlier it was taking quite a whiel longer. The problem is when i go to my homepage i want it to be there whithout having to wait anytime. (i know this is very picky). The other thing is whenever you go back to their site it asks you to select your account.
I don’t know. This seems like a lot of overkill. Web-based e-mail/calendar etc. is nice but Goowy just looks like it is trying to do too much.
The web not yet at the stage where it can be a desktop replacement – what Goowy is trying to do. I would never want to work in my web browser all day. There is still something to be said for standalone applications exisiting alongside web-apps.
I’ve been using Goowy on a daily basis for about a month now. The recent upgrade was nice, but I’m still waiting for the ability to create lists of contacts, rather than have to click them one by one. Export contacts would be neat too, then some folks could use it as a Contact synch repository (I sure would).
I love being able to have my personal email open in a browser at work.
The games aren’t for me and add nothing to the Goowy experience IMO.
Yea it looks good, i used it yesterday pretty efficient
Well, it won’t have me moving from http://www.netvibes.com/ even considering their (Netvibes) lack of server grunt.
The Flash scripting is a great effort and the facilities are very good but I also agree that the latency and loading is a tad too much.
It’s hard to be critical of a company that is being so innovative. yes, there are bugs. yes, it’s slow. but hey, who else has the balls to do this sort of thing. until someone or some company goes and creates web-based tools for us to use like desktop apps, no one will switch. it’s likely that goowy won’t see myspace-like popularity anytime soon, but i do believe this will urge other innovative companies (startups, google, even MS) to get into this arena, and in a few years who knows.
the only thing i do know is that whenever a disruptive technology emerges, they face a lot of skepticism and doubt. although i too won’t be making the full switch, i do see good things for goowy and for future webtops.
I’ve just downloaded opera 9. I have to say goowy can not compete. Opera offers a widget pannel similar to goowy which you can use as a second desktop. Onto of that, you have a brower which offers you tab browsing all in one application.
For the life of me I can’t believe the cheerleaders here – you know who you are. Perhaps you feel like a pioneer sharing the pioneering experience with those “crazy” flip-flop wearing entrepreneurs… This bus is full, maybe you should head over to http://www.foldera.com before they launch their alpha! Quick, get them to add some smileys!
Honestly, what’s new here? I support people who work hard and innovate but these companies, and the community around them, should keep it in perspective. Embracing a personal or group productivity service is a big step. You might play in their sandbox for a week or two but are you going to use a product from a company whose objective is to be bought up (service cancelled), or trust a company with no business model to support their operations, or an unproven product (lost data)? How’s http://www.30boxes.com doing these days? How long before they figure out a calendar is a feature not a business. Save us all some time and do your cheerleading somewhere else.
There are many companies who have great products and have been battle-tested over many years. XMLHTTP / CSS / Web 2.0 blah – it’s not new, they use whatever makes sense to get the job done and don’t get all religious about it. They also have mature feature sets, profiled response times, proven stability, and oh yea a business model so you know they have staff to keep their ship afloat. Just Google: email group calendar contact management
Brilliant Idea; this can be very advantageous for sites like Friendster. Don’t think Cuban would even consider selling this product to Murdoch. Someone out there will eventually combine these two, be it myspace developers or Cuban’s curous interests of competing with mySpace. I could tell you waht would work, but those greenbacks go in my pocket. Mr. Cuban, give me a call!! LOL
Hey Ray,
30 Boxes is doing very well thank you. We have many users who have offered to pay for our service.
Are screensavers a business? With our former company Webshots, we pioneered photo sharing and generated millions of dollars in revenue beginning with something that most people would have considered a trifle.
30 Boxes is a social network and we will generate revenue.
If you don’t like cheerleading, why in the world are you reading this blog? It has been this way since day one.
People read Mike’s stuff because he busts his ass to get information, new ideas, and new products out for people to play around with.
Okay I’ll bite – I’m here to meet smart people doing innovative things. I’m a 30 Boxes user too and I think the team has accomplished great things.
No slant indented to Mike; I get more from his effort than I contribute. Sorry I won’t feel bad for anyone who is busting there ass – I expect that from everyone.
I’m not here to hear patronizing comments from “employees, friends and family” to help anyone create their self fulfilling prophecy. The cheerleaders need to be called out to keep the information objective and useful. Too much commentary is speaking to new / useful / cool elements which are just not (subjective comment yes, but this is where you enter your comments right?). Left unchecked it comes off as just a bunch of buddies rubbing each other.
I salute you for coming to defend your company – we’ll all learn from your intelligent responses. However, if you’re in Tech at less that $50M/year it’s a lifestyle not a business. What’s wrong with working hard on something you love? Just don’t misrepresent it or we’ll be on you
I’ve been a goowy user since the first launch, and I have to say these guys are amazing. This new release is huge in my opinion, because, being able to access my files, pics, music and IM where ever I may be is something I cant do with any other application… at least not one that is as gorgeous as goowy. I’m logged into goowy all day long, so similar to myspace and other sites….I think once the user base takes off, these guys will have no problem generating revenue. Mark Cuban is a smart guy, he knows what he’s investing in!
Go Ray, go! I follow lots of web app providers, and read their blogs if they have ‘em. Many small guys like goowy are doing one or two innovative things, but the’re out of touch with what some of the established smaller companies already have. Mail, calendars, IM??? All been done, and done well. I wouldn’t pay a dime for goowy, and in the end it’s not about cool, it’s about money. If nobody pays, it’s got no future (even the Cuban knows this). BTW, for a blog to be useful, it has to be objective. Save the cheerleading for high school; this is the real world your parents tried to warn you about.
Goowy is very nice and innovative. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here! It has so much potential.
I like that I can put files on my Goowy desktop and access the file from all of my Windows, Linux, and Mac boxes. I bet I could even access it from my PocketPC if I have the internet option.
As forperformance, it runs pretty fast even on my laptop. But I fear that if they start “improving” it then the performance will suffer. Lets hope they continue to keep performance a priority going forward.
Overall, a very nice (new) experience.
I like the idea of Goowy. If you bounce around to different consoles, it could be nice to rely on a web-based desktop like Goowy. I’ve used it occasionally for the last month, but it hasn’t been earth-shattering. What I really like is the Box.net interface. I like it even better than the actually Box.net upload/download interface. And I also appreciate having all my instant messenger profiles built into one system. It’s like a web-based Trillian that I can access wherever I go. But if you only use one computer, I don’t see Goowy being as useful.
Rick – You act like you cashed out big on some product you developed. I wouldnt be so quick to judge mark cuban’s investment. Also, enhancing capabilities that already exist (IM, email, file storage) and centralizing these features in one location, is not something i’ve seen yet so far. I agree, people shouldnt be cheerleading, but I also dont think you should use this forum to bash anyone…
sorry i meant LANCER not Rick.
Ray and Lancer both need to chill out…u guys are USERS not inventors…don’t act like you know what you’re talking about…
Got you covered Paul…twenty years of IT (last fifteen specializing in network applications, last six exclusively specializing in consumer and business facing communication and collaboration products…most would say I do know what I’m talking about; some might even say I’m an expert in this field. But you would have no way of knowing that…no harm no foul. Perhaps if you spent a few minutes researching this area your opinion of goowy would evolve too…
Ray,
A few responses to your comments. I am sorry it has taken me a while, but we have been busy trying to make a difference.
I would have hoped that your comments would have been more constructive, coming from someone as “seasoned” as you are (ps. I wouldnt claim being in a field for 20 years as an accomplishment – its just a factor of time not success).
You criticize people for being “cheerleaders”, but really they are just people like you, but with a different point of view (I can assure you no one from goowy has posted in the comments section until my post today).
It is dissappointing that you chose to attack people who are supportive and want to help an organization grow. Perhaps these people see what goowy can be rather than what it is – thats considered vision.
I am also suprised that you can so blatantly criticize a company’s business model when you have no idea what they are working on or have planned to monetize.
It is ok if you do not see value in any given product or service, but to attack people who do, rather than providing constructive, is a less a sign of a “seasoned” contributor and more an indication of someone who has missed their chance to make a positive difference.
Another great web2.0 concept
Another great web2.0 concept