I’ve been hearing some rumblings about the Adobe AIR product, and its ability to make web products work in a desktop environment.
The boys over at WebResourcesDepot (WRD) put out a snapshot of 27 Adobe AIR products — a posting that became so popular that it caused their site to go down. (If only the GeekLawBlog would be so lucky!!)
So, I thought I’d go over a few of these, and see if they hold any promise.
- TweetDeck This one has been blogged about pretty extensively, and seems to be a good mash-up of the different things you can do with Twitter. I get to see: a)all the tweets of those that I’m following b) any Replies c) all Direct Messages d)Global and Local Searching e) Create Sub-Groups from those that I follow f)TwitScoop for all the Buzz Tweets g) 12seconds.tv updates (which I have no idea what that is, and it doesn’t seem to interesting enough to research This one is definitely worth a look.
- Google Analytics Reporting Suite My fellow GeekLawBlogger, Lisa, gave me the story on using Google Analytics to monitor web traffic and the importance of tracking certain bits of information for Search Engine Optimization and other important (read “geeky”) stuff. Since I have a couple of NINGs for thelibrary community, I’ve been using Google Analytics to monitor traffic. I was content with the interface that Google has for its analytics, but once I pulled that same information up using this Suite, I really began to understand all of the in’s and out’s of what Analytics had to offer me. I like the layout of this suite, and it really puts the information out there in a way that I can better understand the trending of my site visits. If you use Google Analytics, you’ll want to look at this sweet, suite.
- uvLayer If I were 15, I’d probably think this was one of the coolest apps ever. Products need to be careful about saying it is something similar to the UI wall in Minority Report… I’ve seen Minority Report… Having access to the UI Wall in Minority Report is my dream… You, my friend, are no UI Wall in Minority Report! (But, my hero Johnny Chung Lee is going to create one for us!!) Enough ranting about the UI Wall…. The uvLayer product is actually cool, but only if you are into online video and chatting about online video. You can connect to your Facebook or AIM or some other IM products and share these videos in a cool way. But, again, I’m not 15, and I don’t really need this product. So, if your 15, check it out… otherwise, it is just not something I’d suggest.
- ConceptShare Okay, this one is kind of cheating by putting it in the Adobe Air category because it is mostly a web-based product, and they have a Desktop Companion that uses Adobe Air. However, I’m impressed with the overall concept (pardon the pun) of this product. ConceptShare allows you to collaborate with others on projects – ranging from web site design to video commercials, or pretty much any project you need to collaborate. ConceptShare is very interactive, it allows multiple users to work on projects simultaneously, and is very, very visual. Think of it as a mix of Web Page Development, SharePoint, Extranets, and interactive conferencing and chat software. It is a professional-grade product, and not exactly the easiest thing to use straight out of the [virtual] box. But, if you are a marketer, or someone that needs to collaborate on visual products (marketing projects, engineering projects, web page development, etc.) then this might be the product you’ve been looking for. Very, very slick. Oh, and it isn’t free, either. Guess I should have started off with that statement. But, it does have a 30-day trial that will let you kick the tires and see if it fits your needs. If you are a heavy collaborator on graphical design projects, then you might find this product is exactly what you need.
- WebSnapshot This one I like a lot because of its simplicity. Type in an address to a website, and it will give you an image of that website. There are a number of times that I wanted to add a snap shot of the website in my research results, and this product makes it quick and easy. There aren’t a lot of bells and whistles, and that can be a good thing. One enhancement I would like to see, is the ability to load mulitple websites at one time. This one is I definitely will take advantage of in the future.
If you would like a review of any other Adobe Air products, just let me know. If you want to see what else is out there, you can go to the Adobe Air Marketplace. Note: Per comment suggestions, there is also a website called Refreshing Apps that also has review of these products and more, and you can comment and score the apps.