When I found out Konstantin Guericke, one of the founders of LinkedIN and their marketing/pr guy until Kay recently took over, I knew I wanted to find out more about the company that interested him enough to take his leave of LinkedIN. Konstantin is still an advisor at LinkedIN, but has moved out of the day to day operations to focus on running Jaxtr.
Jaxtr is similar to click-to-call in that it enables instant voice communication from a site with just one click. With Jaxtr, once the beta is open, you can place a snippet of code on your blog and end up with a button (like the one you see to the right) or a full featured widget (like what pops up when you click the Jaxtr button on my blog). Users can click the button/widget and enter their phone number to instantly communicate with you.
I have another option on my blog for instant communication, the MeeboMe widget. But Jaxtr stands apart as the only way, other than Skype, for instant communication via voice. And, with Skype, you have the limitation that only Skype users can call you from your blog AND you must be at your computer to receive the call (unless you’ve forwarded your Skype calls to your phone, but that’s an additional step and it costs SkypeOut money).
If you want to give Jaxtr a try, call me anytime (remember please that I am in VA-USA so I’m GMT -5 (EST). Of course, as well, please download the Interview With LinkedIN Cofounder and Jaxtr CEO, Konstantin Guericke.
Good tip on the Jaxtr, I’ll have to take a closer look…although about xxx of these “instant Call” schemes have crashed and burned in the past couple years … but perhaps this will be the one that clears the hurdles.
I’ve also decided to take a look at Meebo, although, along with the general hype about Skype I wonder if bloggers are addicted to something new as opposed to that which is useful … you know Yahoo IM does everything Skype does and more … works great on voice calls from the US to my Philippine hideaway, voice or text … but whatever works.
The real reason I thought to comment is your reminder of your time zone. There’s no really good solution … but one older, less known service I’ve used for years is http://www.timeanddate.com
In addition to a personal world clock application they have a slick little meeting planner that lets you plug in locations around the world and spits out a list of the equivalent times in each location … invaluable if you need to set times to conference in people around the globe.
I’ve not played with timeanddate, I use worldtimeserver.com which also allows the user to view the meeting planner. I’ve worked internationally for years and it makes my work much easier. I’ll check out timeanddate.com.
I agree that I think we possibly are addicted to new ventures, but I am loving Meebo as a multi-IM client because I hate downloading new programs. Plus, Meebo’s doing some smart integration (see the next podcast in this series on Traineo.com).
Were Konstantin not involved, I would not have shown initial interest, but the product deserves a look if for no other reason than his involvement. I am reserving my judgement for the next few months as it is tried out on my blog. Thanks for your comments (and for the heads up about timeanddate.com)!
Another timeanddate.com meeting planner seasoned user here. I find it invaluable, especially when I’m teeing up a call involving more than two people. All you need to know is a city in the other person’s timezone and you’re in business.
Yep, I checked it out and it is rather cool. The interface is very similar to the one I use. I’d also point you to the ajax one, worldclockr.com. 🙂
Hello
Very interesting information! Thanks!
G’night