We use this tool at Scoutzie all the time and we love it. It's a great addition to email. Very often, when say sharing technical insights or design-related links, or even interesting Ted talks among our team, putting those things on email does not make sense, since it just creates clutter. Putting those links on Hipchat also doesn't work, since they are lost and forgotten within 20 minutes. But with https://sendtoinc.com , that problem is solved! We've all installed their desktop proxy and everyone knows where to look for new stuff. We all get to see what's been shared, but we do it on our own schedule and without impacting our productivity. Love it. Give it a try.
I paid for Kippt early on because I thought it was such a nicely designed and well thought out tool. I'm really happy to see them pivoting like this because they're such a talented team. This seems like a potentially useful reorganization of their core strengths.
On the consumer side, I've since cancelled my subscription for two primary reasons: (1) it wasn't fast enough for my core use case (saving links and finding them later); and (2) none of the other features provided me with any value (indeed, they often distracted from the core case). There are simply other tools that do this better. The pivot to enterprise provides a much more unique value proposition.
Having spent the last couple years developing a bookmarking / archiving service which is somewhat similar to Kippt (as well as Historious and Pinboard + Archiving) I'd be interested in knowing what other tools you've found that provide a valuable core feature set?
Shameless self plug: The site is called http://preserve.io and if you're interested we'd love your feedback on our pre-beta which has now been actively used for over a year
> While there are products out there like Convo, Yammer and Evernote for Business, Saarinen said he views e-mail as the main competition.
Yes, they have that right. Email is definitely the competition, and I'm glad this team is upfront about it. Lots of group chat platforms brush this off.
> But these kinds of discussions are not best supported by long chains of e-mail.
Ah, you can't end on that TC! Why are these kinds of discussions not good on email? I've tried a bunch of group chat/discussion/collaboration platforms. I use them for a while, and they're fun and exciting during that honeymoon stage, but I always end up going back to email. It's dependable, robust and evergreen. And everyone has it. I don't know if it's ever not worked. Seriously.
I want to believe that something is better than email, but I have yet to see it. I had HUGE hopes for Google Wave, which was supposed to kill email. Didn't work. Checking out Inc, and it feels a lot like Wave. I hope it doesn't suffer a similar fate.
When I think email tools I remember a company called Xoopt which Yahoo acquired and shut down. They managed all the files you shared with others and gave you better search + visualization within gmail. That was the best photo tool I ever used.
I think there is data out there that confirms email sharing outweighs sharing on FB + TWTTR + everything else online combined.
We have a lot of companies using Inc to share links which are more for inspiration and not as urgent so Inc is the place to store them. It's more like a bridge between email and wikis; both communication but also a repository of useful information
It looks like you can email in content (there is special address in the Settings) - so you could email Bob, Jon, and CC the Inc address and share a link.
You can also get digest emails on new stuff/mentions. So it seems like you could interact entirely via email and then only go to the web if you want to search/see groups.
Header on their website: "Say no to email, build a better workplace"
When they say something like that and then build a service that is dependent on email (at least somewhat), and even go as far as allowing the service to be used in it's entirety via email, I have to wonder if they genuinely believe email is broken. If they really believed in the "say no to email" matra, they would have simply said no to email themselves.
Apologies for the bluntness. My skepticism stems from personal experiences working on a project that was designed to 'kill email' (rather, a subset of email, not group chat like this). The same thing happened: primary interaction mechanism with the platform was ... email. That project failed.
Basically, private Hacker News for organizations to share and discuss online articles. This is awesome. Something that I didn't know I need but now I just can't wait to try!
One of my biggest pet peeves is endless emails sent to everyone in the organization by someone who just wanted to share an article that he/she thought was interesting. Then someone replies all with a comment, another person replies all, and soon, my email client just kept on buzzing even if the topic doesn't concern or interest me.
And the most frustrating thing is there's no rule that I can create to filter out those kind of emails.
This is very, very useful. Kudos to the Kippt team.
>
One of my biggest pet peeves is endless emails sent to everyone in the organization by someone who just wanted to share an article that he/she thought was interesting. Then someone replies all with a comment, another person replies all, and soon, my email client just kept on buzzing even if the topic doesn't concern or interest me.
> And the most frustrating thing is there's no rule that I can create to filter out those kind of emails.
FYI, Gmail lets you mute threads, which addresses this exact use case.
The addition of being able to "like" things your co-workers post, categorize topics into groups, and carry lengthy conversations right on the page, are features that have really sold us on the idea.
Before Inc we tried email groups (so messy), Google+ groups (again, messy, and not everyone wants to get on there for discussing/sharing interesting things), etc.
Kudos to Karri and the team on creating something that's beautiful and functions well.
The truth about these tools is that they appease to our OCD side. There is a honeymoon period during the which you find various reasons to use the tool. After a while you realize tools only help with organization during that first burst of excitement. At this point you either have to confront the fact that getting organized isn’t a technical problem or you find a new tool to get excited about.
What makes these tools succeed at least for the short term, is they fuck with the organizational habits of people. Their landing pages are huge cues to get more organized, which people love. People love the idea of getting their shit together and becoming organized once and for all.
The challenge these apps are facing is creating a habit loop. You need a cue and a reward, but more specifically when replacing a habit (email) with something new, you need to replace either the cue or the reward. In between those you have your tool. Without this change people just go back to their old habits. In the case of Inc the reward is "thanks for sharing that link, you’re awesome!" and the cue is "I need to send this to my whole team". Currently everybody immediately reaches an internal mailing list or enters in a few autocompleted emails when they encounter this cue, the urge to share with team members.
Now what Kippt, their original product did, which was clever, was creating new cues. They heavily pushed their Chrome extensions which inserted "Kippt" buttons and links to loads of websites with potentially interesting links. There’s even one for all hacker news links. This created new cues for people to respond to.
For Inc to succeed it needs to cleverly introduce more cues because email works fine for this particulare habit loop and will be hard to replace.
You're right, that's why we still constantly working / talking with our customers/users, to find if things are working or not.
I think mobile app, better notifications, doing email and other integration, and improving the daily digest emails will help to create those habits.
We want people to use the app everyday at work, understand that people also need to work, give them enough cues, but not to bother them.
One thing that have noticed that even chats are pretty intensive, and some teams so it a lot, it also requires you to be present at the same time, to effectively join the discussion.
With Inc, discussions is more like in a forum or email, where people comment when they have time / something to say.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 65.9 ms ] threadOn the consumer side, I've since cancelled my subscription for two primary reasons: (1) it wasn't fast enough for my core use case (saving links and finding them later); and (2) none of the other features provided me with any value (indeed, they often distracted from the core case). There are simply other tools that do this better. The pivot to enterprise provides a much more unique value proposition.
Shameless self plug: The site is called http://preserve.io and if you're interested we'd love your feedback on our pre-beta which has now been actively used for over a year
Yes, they have that right. Email is definitely the competition, and I'm glad this team is upfront about it. Lots of group chat platforms brush this off.
> But these kinds of discussions are not best supported by long chains of e-mail.
Ah, you can't end on that TC! Why are these kinds of discussions not good on email? I've tried a bunch of group chat/discussion/collaboration platforms. I use them for a while, and they're fun and exciting during that honeymoon stage, but I always end up going back to email. It's dependable, robust and evergreen. And everyone has it. I don't know if it's ever not worked. Seriously.
I want to believe that something is better than email, but I have yet to see it. I had HUGE hopes for Google Wave, which was supposed to kill email. Didn't work. Checking out Inc, and it feels a lot like Wave. I hope it doesn't suffer a similar fate.
What's the huge problem with email?
I think there is data out there that confirms email sharing outweighs sharing on FB + TWTTR + everything else online combined.
https://www.inboxapp.com/
You can also get digest emails on new stuff/mentions. So it seems like you could interact entirely via email and then only go to the web if you want to search/see groups.
Header on their website: "Say no to email, build a better workplace"
When they say something like that and then build a service that is dependent on email (at least somewhat), and even go as far as allowing the service to be used in it's entirety via email, I have to wonder if they genuinely believe email is broken. If they really believed in the "say no to email" matra, they would have simply said no to email themselves.
Apologies for the bluntness. My skepticism stems from personal experiences working on a project that was designed to 'kill email' (rather, a subset of email, not group chat like this). The same thing happened: primary interaction mechanism with the platform was ... email. That project failed.
One of my biggest pet peeves is endless emails sent to everyone in the organization by someone who just wanted to share an article that he/she thought was interesting. Then someone replies all with a comment, another person replies all, and soon, my email client just kept on buzzing even if the topic doesn't concern or interest me.
And the most frustrating thing is there's no rule that I can create to filter out those kind of emails.
This is very, very useful. Kudos to the Kippt team.
> And the most frustrating thing is there's no rule that I can create to filter out those kind of emails.
FYI, Gmail lets you mute threads, which addresses this exact use case.
Congrats gents on the latest developments!
The addition of being able to "like" things your co-workers post, categorize topics into groups, and carry lengthy conversations right on the page, are features that have really sold us on the idea.
Before Inc we tried email groups (so messy), Google+ groups (again, messy, and not everyone wants to get on there for discussing/sharing interesting things), etc.
Kudos to Karri and the team on creating something that's beautiful and functions well.
You can always reach us by email if there is something you think should be fixed or working hello@sendtoinc.com (it comes to founders directly).
http://forrst.com/posts/Kippt-y39
What makes these tools succeed at least for the short term, is they fuck with the organizational habits of people. Their landing pages are huge cues to get more organized, which people love. People love the idea of getting their shit together and becoming organized once and for all.
The challenge these apps are facing is creating a habit loop. You need a cue and a reward, but more specifically when replacing a habit (email) with something new, you need to replace either the cue or the reward. In between those you have your tool. Without this change people just go back to their old habits. In the case of Inc the reward is "thanks for sharing that link, you’re awesome!" and the cue is "I need to send this to my whole team". Currently everybody immediately reaches an internal mailing list or enters in a few autocompleted emails when they encounter this cue, the urge to share with team members.
Now what Kippt, their original product did, which was clever, was creating new cues. They heavily pushed their Chrome extensions which inserted "Kippt" buttons and links to loads of websites with potentially interesting links. There’s even one for all hacker news links. This created new cues for people to respond to.
For Inc to succeed it needs to cleverly introduce more cues because email works fine for this particulare habit loop and will be hard to replace.
You're right, that's why we still constantly working / talking with our customers/users, to find if things are working or not.
I think mobile app, better notifications, doing email and other integration, and improving the daily digest emails will help to create those habits.
We want people to use the app everyday at work, understand that people also need to work, give them enough cues, but not to bother them.
One thing that have noticed that even chats are pretty intensive, and some teams so it a lot, it also requires you to be present at the same time, to effectively join the discussion.
With Inc, discussions is more like in a forum or email, where people comment when they have time / something to say.