Today we are happy to announce a major upgrade to our group collaboration service Shareflow. With this release we focused on making Shareflow blazingly fast while adding some of the most requested features from our users.

We know from user feedback and our own personal use that once Shareflow is incorporated into your workflow, it becomes an important hub for all your group communication. Our users keep Shareflow open all day and love how it keeps their most important conversation categorized and easily accessible via our powerful search engine. That’s why one of our priorities for this release was focusing on making Shareflow as fast and responsive as possible. How serious are we about performance? We rewrote Shareflow’s user interface from the ground up, optimizing for speed and consistency across our supported browsers. When you open Shareflow today, you’ll notice quicker load times and improved responsiveness as you navigate between flows and perform searches. This work also lays the groundwork for us to build new features and continue to tune performance to make Shareflow even faster.

We really worked on performance with this release, but what would a release be without a few new features? Your feedback as Shareflow users is incredibly important to us, and we’ve included some of our users’ most requested features with this upgrade.

Rich Text In Posts

Shareflow now supports rich-text in your comments and posts. Now you can express your thoughts more clearly using bold, italic, underline, fonts, colors, lists…you get the idea. The rich text controls are neatly tucked away on the right side of the comment field giving you access to bold and italic by default.

Or you can expand the controls to get the full list of text formatting options

(disclaimer: Zenbe does not condone the use of Comic Sans).

Edit a Post

Shareflow now allows you to go back and edit posts after you’ve posted them. Whenever you update a post it will be sorted back to the top of the list of posts in the flow, so your collaborators can see the updates. To edit a post just select the edit button in the context menu on the right corner of each Post. Note you can only edit posts that you created.

You can use this feature to make minor corrections to a post you’ve made after posting it, or to collaboratively build a document based on your collaborators comments. This feature opens up a lot of possibilities for how to use Shareflow that we may not have even considered yet. Try it out and let us know your power user tips.

Gorgeous Image Previews

We brought over the beautiful new image previewer that we build for Zenbe Mail. Now your photos look better than ever and load faster too!

Find That Flow You’re Looking for, Faster!

Shareflow is a flexible system that allows you to decide how to organize your information. Some of our users prefer to use just a few long running flows to collaborate while others like to create many flows each focused on a smaller project or topic. For the latter group we’ve enhanced the Shareflow sidebar to make it easier to find the flow your looking for. First we added sorting options. By default, your list of flows is now sorted by recent activity. This means that your most active flows will always be easily accessible at the top of the list. If you want to see an alphabetical listing of flows, just click the drop down and select “All Flows A-Z”. Another way to quickly find a flow is to click on the binoculars “find” button. You’ll get a text field that you can type the name of the flow in to quickly narrow your list to the flow you are looking for.

One More Thing…

We know that Shareflow has helped many organizations collaborate more effectively, and we want the Shareflow community to grow even more. Today we are announcing our holiday gift to the Shareflow community, unlimited flows on all of our Shareflow plans! That’s right every plan from free to premium now offers unlimited flows, which gives you unlimited flexibility in how you categorize your most important conversations and collaborate with the people that matter most to you!

There’s no better time to head on over to http://getshareflow.com and signup today if you haven’t already. We hope you enjoy all of these enhancements to Shareflow and we are eager to hear your feedback on how we can make the system even better. Please contact us and us know your thoughts.

Happy Holidays, everyone! And here’s to a productive New Year with Shareflow!

We’ve recently made a number of exciting enhancements to the Zenbe Mail. Here’s a summary of what’s new:

Facebook Integration

Teams and individuals using Zenbe Mail can now enable a Facebook tab in their account. If you are the primary administrator of your mail account, here’s how to do it:

1. Login to Zenbe Mail
2. Click on the “admin” link in the upper-right corner
3. Click the “Domain Settings” tab
4. Check the “Enable Facebook Tab” checkbox

Enable Facebook

Refresh your browser and your entire team can now access the Facebook tab.

The Facebook tab allows you to access the status updates of your Facebook network, as well as update your own status, all within Zenbe Mail.

Facebook Integration

Files Enhancements

We improved the way we handle files in the “Files” tab. File thumbnails are generated and served faster. We show nicer preview images. Check out the new image preview panel below:

Image Preview

If the image came to you via email, click on the name or email address at the bottom of the preview and we’ll open the original email in the “Mail” tab.

We also added more powerful search options. You can continue searching for files by adding all or part of the file name in the search field. But you can create more powerful searches using search modifiers. Some examples:

• from:peter

Searches for all files from anyone named ‘peter’

• type:’Pdf’

Restrict searches to PDF files.

• starred

Shows all starred files.

Mix and match search modifiers for powerful searches. For example: “from:peter type:’pdf’ starred” shows all starred PDF files from anyone named peter.

External Email Addresses

Zenbe Mail allows you to create multiple users within your own email domain for a small fee per user, with no minimum commitment. But did you know that you can add a number of external email addresses to your own account at no extra charge? You can add two types of addresses: send only and send and receive. Here’s what it means:

Send-only addresses

Send-only addresses are most commonly used when you are forwarding email from another service – such as Gmail – to your Zenbe Mail account. Another frequent use for send-only address is responding from a ‘mailing list’ address. In Zenbe Mail, your team can set up a mailing list address like ’sales@acmecorp.com’ and have multiple members of the team receive all mail that is sent to that address.

To send email out using either your forwarded or mailing list address, set up a send-only address. Click on “settings”, then “Email Addresses”, followed by the “add an address button”. Next to “Account Type” choose “sends email only.”

After you add the email address, we’ll send a confirmation email in order for you to activate it. It may take a few minutes for the confirmation email to arrive. Once it does, click the activation link. You can start using the address right away by selecting it from the pulldown menu when you compose a new message.

Send and Receive addresses

Some email services don’t support forwarding. Not a problem. You can configure Zenbe Mail to retrieve email from almost any email service. Follow the steps described above to add a new email address, but this time select “sends and receives email” next to the “Account Type” field. You’ll need to give us your email address and password. Note that we store all passwords using industry-standard encryption so you’re credentials are safe with us.

We can auto-detect the correct server settings for many popular email services. If we can’t figure out how to connect to your service, you’ll see an error message asking you to add more information about the server settings. Consult the help documentation provided by your other email service regarding IMAP or POP access to figure out what values to enter.

Zenbe Mail checks your external accounts once every 5-8 minutes for new messages.

Add Email Addresses

The number of external email addresses you can add varies by plan:

Value Plan: 5
Standard Plan: 10
Premium Plan: 20

We hope you enjoy these latest improvements!

Even after filters and rules got rid of the stuff I didn’t need to see, I used to get more than 200 emails a day. These days I get maybe 20.

Sometimes I feel kind of sad and lonely about it. No one wants to talk to me anymore. I miss the foolish satisfaction in getting through all those emails. Where did they all go?

The emails are gone. The social stuff has moved to Facebook, where I can look at it when I want to be social.

The work stuff has moved to Shareflow. On flows, I stay in touch and interact without “doing” anything. Its effortless.

Leaving my inbox kind of empty.

If you reap vital satisfaction from clearing your inbox, stay away from Shareflow. If you want to be more effective with more people with less effort, then give Shareflow a try.

We created Shareflow with the banal goal of getting our  important online communication out of chat, out of our overloaded inboxes, and putting it somewhere where we could actually use it, focusing where  we need to. Via a website or  mobile device.   Accessing it once a day, once a week, or once a second – that shouldn’t matter.  Want to lurk on a conversation? Want to dive in and add some value? Do either, without overloading your, or anyone else’s inbox.

Shareflow is based on a simple idea: take a conversation with a specific audience, and treat it like a living, breathing thing.  Conversations are alive.  They are born. They persist. They die. Conversations can be about anything. They happen at different speeds, and they can happen anywhere.

We thought Google Wave had the same idea. Boy, were we wrong.

Google Wave is fun to play with. Its nifty. The protocols are cool. Developers love to play with it. So do I.

Is Google Wave going to help your team work better together? No way!

Do you really want to replay a wave to figure out who said what when?

Should everyone in my conversation be able to edit everything all the time?

There are already numerous public Waves talking about how not to use Wave.

Online messaging, the important parts, are often focused on information creation. This has natural steps or cycles, neither of which is supported  by Wave.

Lets talk about information creation. It’s not important whether its the new artwork for the annual report, the sales forecast, or a new software library.

We start when someone takes a stab at creating a version.  Then its discussed, then one or many take another stab. Repeat as necessary. When the audience agrees no more tries are needed, we are done. Perhaps the information is passed to a different audience, and things start all over again.  There is a shared understanding of what constitutes a “try” or what “done” means.

Google Wave rips apart what a “try” is, or what “done” could mean.  Its refreshing. Its creative. Its just not helpful.

I have worked in meetings where 5 or 20 people try to draft a document together. Its always horrible, and never successful. The coffee runs out. Just as well, its bad coffee. The meetings end with a few people being selected to create the next draft. Lawyers are driven to work this way. Its an ingenious way to increase billable hours.

Wave reminds me of those meetings.  Even worse, Wave treats a conversation like a bunch of people talking at the same time. If you want to understand what was said, you have to listen to the recording. This is not how people want to work together.

People want more structure than that. They need a beginning, the middle part, and sometimes, an end.

I wax poetic.  If you want a more concrete description of why Wave doesn’t add much yet, just read this.

We all agree email is awful.  Google Wave may get there.   Happy Google is innovating on the problem.  They just need to stop being cool for cool’s sake, and think about how the rest of us think.

One of our frequent feature requests for Shareflow is a public API. Today we’re making a beta version of the API available.

Why is the API in beta?

• We’re still working on documenting the actual wire protocol for the API.
• We want your feedback on more useful features to add.

Getting started

Head over to Zenbe’s Github page and grab Will’s flareshow library for Ruby or my pyshareflow library for Python. These libraries will allow you to start scripting Shareflow operations like:

• Adding and editing flows and posts
• Uploading files
• Inviting users
• Searching

A few tips

We recommend using the API against a non-critical account before going nuts with it on your critical data. You can always sign up for a free Shareflow account to test with.

If you find an issue with one of the libraries, please use Github’s Issue Tracker (click the ‘Issues’ tab) to report it.

Some Inspiration

Need an example? Check out our script for posting Google Docs to Shareflow.

Let us know how you’re using the API. If you create something cool and useful to the Shareflow community we’ll hook you up with a Shareflow Plus account (a $40/month value) for free!

Two of the most popular feature requests for Shareflow have been easier ways to upload files and more ways to receive notifications when new content is posted.  We hear you loud and clear! That’s why we built the Shareflow Desktop client.

Shareflow Desktop is a great way to get files from your desktop into Shareflow, where your group can access them easily.  All you have to do is drag the files you want to share into the Shareflow Desktop window, select the flow to upload them to from the drop-down list, and click ‘post’.  It’s that easy to start sharing files on Shareflow.

Shareflow Desktop makes it even easier to keep up with all your important communication on Shareflow by providing ‘always-on’ notifications even when you don’t have your web browser open.  You can use the “recent activity” tab to peruse a listing of the most recent posts comments and files in Shareflow.  Since these updates are downloaded to your computer you can view them even when you don’t have an internet connection.

When another user posts in one of your flows, Shareflow Desktop will alert you to the new post with an orange indicator on the recent activity tab.

You can choose to add additional notifications like playing a sound or animating the Shareflow Desktop icon when updates arrive.  All of this is available in the settings panel.  Just click on the options icon to set your preferred notifications.

Shareflow Desktop collapses down to a small form-factor so you can leave it running and it won’t get in the way of your other applications.  You can still drag in files and view notifications while the application is collapsed.

We built Shareflow Desktop with the cross platform Adobe Air Runtime, which means you can use it on Windows, Mac, or Linux.  A one click installer will guide you through the simple installation process.

Check us out on the Adobe Air Marketplace or the Shareflow Desktop homepage to download your copy today.

Thanks again for using Shareflow and keep the feedback coming.  We’re listening!

We’ve received lots of requests for a public API to Shareflow. A public API will allow developers and consultants to integrate systems they already use with Shareflow and come up with new ways to use the service.

The good news is we’re putting the finishing touches on the API. We’ll be posting details on this blog within the next two weeks so watch this space!

We’ve also received a lot of requests for real-time notifications in Shareflow when you’re not logged into the web site. We already provide RSS feeds of your Shareflow activity, but we’re working on three new features to help keep you up-to-date:

1. An unobtrusive desktop application (written in Adobe Air so it will work on Windows, Mac, and Linux) that notifies you whenever there is new activity in flows you are a member of. The desktop app will also allow you to drag-n-drop files from your computer to easily upload to Shareflow.
2. The ability to email a Shareflow post to any member of the flow. Currently all of your teammates can receive a daily digest of Shareflow activity, but sometimes you want to be extra-sure they read one of your posts if they don’t check Shareflow that often.
3. Real-time email notifications: Several people want to receive an email any time anything happens on Shareflow. We’re working on a system to support this.

All of these features are designed to help you and your team get the most out of Shareflow.

In case you missed our previous announcement, check out Shareflow’s new search capabilities.

The feedback on Shareflow has been terrific.  Like us, diverse teams in all walks of digital life have been frustrated by complicated,  poorly implemented collaboration tools, and are finding Shareflow to be a solution they can use.

We want to hear more about what you think of Shareflow.  To give you and your colleagues a little extra incentive, we are having a contest!  Original, huh?

Twitter your thoughts and experiences on Shareflow, we will pick our two favorite tweets, and each winner will receive TWO tickets each  for CRUE FEST 2!!!!!

That’s right! Two creative, thought-provoking Shareflow fans will win  a total of four tickets for the  18 August performance  at PNC Bank Arts Center in NJ.  Read all about this inspiring show at www.cruefest2.com.

Details: Put  the phrase “#getshareflow” in your tweet before 5 pm EDT  next Thursday, 13 August.  We will contact the winners on twitter Thursday night, and overnight the tickets to you.  If you would prefer some awesome Zenbe Fleece pullovers, we can make that happen too!

We look forward to your posts!

Today we are pleased to announce the addition of Search to the suite of tools that Shareflow provides to help you focus on your most important conversations and stay organized.

At Zenbe, we’ve been using Shareflow internally since February.  Over the past six months we’ve built up a rich database of important conversations, documents and media spanning a wide variety of topics.  Although Shareflow automatically keeps your conversations organized by topic or “flow”, sometimes you want to search through your conversation history for a specific message or group of messages related to a specific topic. Shareflow search makes it easy to find the exact message or file you are looking for regardless of when it was posted or what topic it was posted under.

Search Tips

The next time you login to Shareflow you’ll see the new search box in the top left corner of your screen.

From the search box you can search across all post types or choose a specific post type from the drop down list on the left.  Clicking the “go” button or hitting return will provide you with a list of all posts matching your query in the flow you have selected from the flow list.  If you want to search all of your flows, just be sure to select “All Flows” before running your query.  You’ll be able to search all of the text in any post or comment.  We also index emails, file names, file extensions and meta data about events and maps.  You can even get a list of all posts by a certain user by just searching for their name.

So how can you use this feature to improve your productivity and organization?

Here’s just one example of how we use search at Zenbe.  As we’ve built out Shareflow we’ve generated a lot of documentation about the system. Sometimes I need to refer back to a specific design document or user guide we’ve created as a pdf and stored on Shareflow.  To find these files all I have to do is search in “All Flows” for “pdf shareflow”.  If I know the document I’m looking for is stored in a specific flow, I can drill down to that specific topic by selecting the flow in the left sidebar.

Getting creative

Although Shareflow is great at helping you organize and search the conversations your team is collaborating on, it’s also a flexible tool that can be used in a variety of ways.  I like to use Shareflow as a personal information database for notes to myself, blog posts I want to read later, and files that people send me.  The new search feature makes it possible to mine this personal journal for specific notes or files.  This in conjunction with our mobile application makes Shareflow a great way to keep all your important information at your fingertips.

We’d love to hear your creative ideas on how Shareflow helps you focus on what matters.

Here at Zenbe we like to do something that I call “Taking Javascript Seriously”, and it’s one of the core principles that stands behind Shareflow, Zenbe Mail, and Zenbe Lists, making them as slick and speedy as they are. It means that we rely on a rich layer of Javascript to process and render your emails, flows, and to-do lists. Most of the work that happens in Zenbe applications happens right inside your browser, with the underlying data getting synced back up to the cloud when it’s convenient.

So we’re always excited about the possibilities that arise when new Javascript features become available, and the upcoming implementations of HTML5 promise to bring along a real wealth of new scriptable goodies. Looking to the past, as well as to the future, the HTML5 team has decided to standardize a number of old, browser-specific features — this means that some of the ostensibly new features in HTML5 have already been around for years, and that some are even ready to use right now.

Today, we’re introducing web drag and drop for Shareflow, so that you can quickly and easily share images, text, links, and web clips, just by dragging them into a flow. Say you’re surfing the New York Times, and you see a paragraph from the front page that you’d like to share. Select the paragraph, drag it into Shareflow, and you can share it instantly with the rest of your team. Drag and drop works with word processing applications as well, you can drag in the text of a progress report or business outline. If you have a link to a document or image on the web, dragging the link into Shareflow will upload that document to the Flow, just as if you had used the file uploader to post it directly. Try browsing around your favorite photography website and dropping the pictures right into a flow.

Despite being so new, drag and drop has pretty good browser support. We’ve tested it and confirmed that it works in the following browsers:

• Firefox 3.5
• Safari 4
• Internet Explorer 7
• Google Chrome

The new drag and drop specification is a great step forward, but there are still plenty of differences and quirks lurking among the browsers. To help alleviate the incompatibilities, we’re open-sourcing a little bit of Javascript from our internal framework, a class called the zen.util.DropManager. If you’re a web developer, and you’d like to use HTML5 drag and drop in your projects, give the DropManager a try.

When you attach it to an HTML element, the DropManager takes care of enabling it as a drop target, handling some differences between the types of data that the browsers provide, and giving you back a clean object with the three potential parts you care about: URLs, HTML fragments, and plain text. You can grab the code right here:

http://gist.github.com/153019
(The DropManager depends on the Prototype Javascript framework).

If you find the DropManager useful, please feel free to fork it on GitHub and improve it.

If you want to see it in action, sign up for a free Shareflow account. Cheers!