Zimbra is the “new kid on the block” in the email world. They’ve built a beautiful AJAX based, open source application, which you can view via their Flash demo, or try through their hosted demo. I highly suggest taking a look at the Flash demo to get a better understanding of how they are creating a very user-friendly system.

In some ways, this Web 2.0 time we’re living in can feel overwhelming. There are just too many choices. You want a browser? Choose between Flock, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, or Safari. You want email? Will you choose Yahoo, Hotmail, or GMail as your web-based version and Outlook, Mail, or Thunderbird as your actual client? Too many choices sometimes.

However, with all the choices out there one thing always proves out – if you build a simple and high-quality product you will win out. Google has shown us this, they entered an incredibly competitive search market at the worst possible time – and won. Zimbra could do the same thing.

I’m a web marketing strategist. In that role, I use a lot (and I mean A LOT) of different tools for a variety of clients and projects. Most software companies seem to think that a tool should have every possible combination of functionality that could ever be needed, and that a “simple” user interface must be a sign of weakness in an application.

A month or so back I was led to a small company out of Australia by the name of Campaign Monitor. They had designed an email application because they were tired of the headaches caused by using the other software that was out there. When they realized that others were having the same problem, they decided to open its use up to others. Now, you can sign up for free and send emails for $.01 each (2,000 emails will cost me $30 + $5 usage = $35 total). Very simple, very straightforward.

Reporting is great. You can track all the ordinary metrics: bounces, opens, clickthroughs, etc.. They wrap it all up and give it back to you in nice non-excel type graphics which are usable in reports to clients. Email lists are easy to setup and manage, and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out how to add Forward-to-a-friend and custom unsubscribe components.

I wish more software companies would understand this simple fact: build a simple, solid and easy-to-use application and you will be succesful. Customers will transform into zealots (like me), and trumpet your product for free to anyone that will listen. You can’t buy this type of marketing – another thing I know quite a bit about!

So, a long story short, if you are a web designer, small business or freelancer that has a need for a quality email program, do yourself a favor and look at Campaign Monitor. Take it from one who has used everything from CheetahMail to ExactTarget, you will like it (plus, it’s free to try so give it a whirl).

Make sure you give the Campaign Monitor Blog a look to. Great advice and quality email design examples.

I’ve been doing the web thing for a couple of years, and I have to say that DreamHost is one of the best services that I’ve had the fortune to come across in a long time. For some reason they keep increasing my bandwidth every month – for free, without me asking. They are quick to get back to me when I have an issue that needs to be resolved as well. Quick response time is something I definately look for in a shared hosting service.

One of the other reasons I use them is because I’m extremely lazy. Yes, I could install WordPress (this blog engine) , phpBB and other applications on my own, but it’s so much nicer using their one-click install. They have this for:

• Joomla (Mambo)



• phpBB Forums
• OSCommerce
• WordPress
• Miva Merchant
• Menalto Photo Gallery
• Etc…

Also of note, I get unlimited domain hosting with gobs of Gigs for both bandwidth and storage space. If half the companies in the world would give such good service and have such a high quality product – well, there would be one very happy White African running around.

Just so you don’t think I’m trying to be sneaky, the links do give me credit if you open service with them, but that is not why I sing these guys praises. I have other websites to make money off of and do try to keep this one “pure”. However, if you did open up service it would cover a couple months of running WhiteAfrican.com – and you won’t regret the choice either!

Michael over at Addison Road got into the beta for Measure Map. I’m extremely jealous – I really want to try that tool out. I’m so tired of using my current tool (sitemeter) that I refuse to even link to their 90’s era website.

As soon as I read Michael’s review, I rushed over to submit another email address in hopes that they would not spurn me twice!

UPDATE: Since I wrote this Google has decided to give Urchin analytics away for free to all users of AdWords. Talk about throwing a wrench in the system. I’ve set up Urchin on an account at work to test it out, and it’s good. However, I still think there is room for Measure Map. Not everyone uses AdWords, especially bloggers and small site owners. These are the perfect candidates for a product like Measure Map (depending on its pricing structure).

Yahoo! has just released it’s beta for Yahoo! Local Maps. It’s all done in Flash, unlike Google Maps which is done in AJAX.

I like:

• The functionality for when you find a restaurant, or other location.
• How “map and directions” work – very smooth
• The ability to rate businesses (this could be HUGE!)

I don’t like:

• Load times between zooms
• That it only covers North America
• That there is no satellite/hybrid view (maybe I’m spoiled by Google on that though)

Overall it’s a good application. Is it going to draw me away from Google Maps? I doubt it. However, the fact that you can rate restaurants, banks, or any other business that shows up on the Yahoo! Map is very nice. I really like that functionality and I think that that type of user feedback will really begin to affect companies over the coming years.

EDIT: Here’s some neat stuff you can do with Yahoo! Maps. I might have jumped the gun on how scalable and flexible the Yahoo! format is. We’ll see as more and more people start utilizing, hacking, and mashing it up.

I’ve posted before about how blog search differs from normal search, and how there is a great need for it for both relevance and timely information. Technorati, blo.gs, IceRocket and Google are a few of the main players in this arena.

Sphere, is the new kid on the block. Their Beta started this weekend. They claim to have a new and better algorithm that allows them to:

• delivers the most relevant, timely and authoritative posts and blogs on any topic;
• indexes and searches the full text of each post, not just the feed contents or the home page;
• allows you to search by relevance and time;
• uses content analysis to blend related mainstream media with blog results for a complete picture

Time and more testing will tell if this what they claim is true. At this point I’m impressed with the speed of the searches, but I’m not convinced of their relevance yet. Why? Because I searched for “White African” and nothing from my blog appeared – I know there are not a lot of white african references on the web, so this seems odd to me. The only reference I find is on a blog that links back to me (Sudan Watch).

Anyway, I know this is in Beta, and I know I should search for more than just “white african”. I’ll do that over the next week and let everyone know my findings.