Google spaces — new kid on the block
Google spaces launched a few days ago and I’m quite excited to use a new tool and assess if it’s worth the time, bandwidth and attention in an increasingly crowded collaboration/ productivity space.
I’ll give a comparison and my personal take on the few platforms I use most often and the pros and cons of each one.
I used the following criteria for judging:
- Strength as a communication tool?
- How good is it as a knowledge base?
- Does it work seamlessly across platform?
Google Spaces
Google space focuses on topic. The passion driven roots of Google+ is brought over to spaces (personally that was the biggest appeal of Google+. It failed as a mainstream social network. Although for research it’s pretty damn awesome but no one believes me)
Interaction is based on the Key topic that is set up:
Content is populated through searches, local images and text (Google goes back to an area it is strong in):
I think they also listed stickers to appeal to the Asian and younger crowds:
Once the content is added. People in the topic can discuss within the thread (which should make keeping track of things easier. Have not tested this out thoroughly with a sizeable enough team. But the theory is quite sound):
One major drawback is the scalability. Once there is too much content, I foresee a problem with searching for the items and the thread of discussion. They also face a challenge to dethrone wiki platforms and even blogging platforms which have decent communicative collaboration. As a central repository of information and discussion, this is a really good start.
In terms of platforms, it has been rolled out on Android, iOS and web (I would expect nothing less from Google)
A huge concern would be data security and I do not see companies or even startups using this. Amongst friends they may still prefer to use a more social tool.
Good use cases I foresee would probably be itinerary planning for holidays. However for that to take off, they need to have a stronger maps offering. Cozy maps could be a good partnership.
Rating (out of 5):
✓✓
Slack
Slack. The poster child for all things collaborative. Love it, hate it, definitely can’t live without it.
In a way this is just a UI/ aesthetics refresh IRC with added mobile capabilities:
However it’s just so much more. The integration and the apps directory makes it indispensable. The main strength is also a key weakness in the operational expense that it generates that may not make sense in the long run.
The search capabilities are more powerful in the premium version (duh). However I still find it rather difficult to find things. Slack does not serve as a good knowledge base for information seeking. For bouncing ideas, it’s absolutely amazing. Especially the asynchronous nature of communication for folks with teams across timezones.
Across platforms, Slack does a decent job. Native client app for Windows and Mac OSX is ok, however the one thing I’ve noticed is that anything more than 7 teams loaded onto the Slack desktop app, there is a huge consumption of memory and without enough ram, the program may hang and crash.
Rating (out of 5):
✓✓✓✓
Facebook Messenger
Facebook messenger is a powerful for social communication. It could still be seen as something used for personal communication. One major complaint tends to be battery consumption on mobile devices.
The growing list of free stickers helps. The integration with apps has helped to improve it’s functionality and utility. My general favorites include the gif keyboard which adds more emotional depth to the conversation:
There is also integration with dropbox for files. However I wouldn’t use this for more than communicating.
The platforms are really well covered: Android, iOS, web (standalone messenger.com), Blackberry and Windows. (I think they might have it on Symbian but it could have been discontinued)
My biggest gripe is the lack of Asian support and slow rollout of the cooler features such as chatbots and sending of money. If Facebook continues to ignore the Asian market, WeChat is very likely to end up having a sizeable market share.
Rating (out of 5):
✓✓✓
Evernote
As dated as Evernote is, I still use this as my defacto note taking tool. (Full disclosure, I am a Evernote Certified Consultant so I might be a bit bias)
The recent negative news that shrouds Evernote has really forced the product team to refocus on their products across platforms. The updates on Windows and Mac have made them a lot more stable.
The additional apps such as scannable and web clipper make Evernote a pleasant experience.
I still face sync issues once in a a while, however it is still the best tool to dump all my ideas and things I find on the web.
The collaboration experience is still quite bad (Evernote chat is a disaster to use). However for personal use and small teams as a knowledge base. I still find Evernote extremely powerful.
Rating (out of 5):
✓✓✓✓
Personally, I would stick to Evernote for notes taking, Slack for collaborating, Facebook messenger for communicating. I do see a possibility of using Google spaces for smaller teams and short term projects (less than 2 months)
Some other tools such as Whatsapp or WeChat are covered here mostly because I think they are similar enough to Facebook messenger.
