There’s no doubt that people are feeling overwhelmed by the deluge of digital communication hitting their eyes and inboxes, but I do wonder whether the solution is not so much in products like this Inbox2 software and online service hybrid, which simply act as super efficient collection agencies, or more with semi-intelligent products like the Raindrop product from Mozilla, which will learn how to make choices for you in terms of prioritizing important communications from lesser ones.
Once you sign up to your inBox2 ‘unified mailbox’ and register your various email and network accounts with the software, you can receive, and respond to, any communications, posts etc from the one interface.
Well actually it’s two interfaces, since the desktop software version and the online version appear to have subtly different dynamics. The software runs the comms stream in a sidebar motif, while the online version offers a full page river of all incoming posts.
There are some nice touches in the software, including response buttons to schedule replies for later or tag them as Todo items, and the tabbed format is definitely useful for scanning detailed information on a particular message. The software is clearly a work in progress, search doesn’t work particularly well for instance, and nor does the right hand panel cycle properly with the message you’re viewing, but overall the effect is pleasant.
The real power of the Inbox2 system will come when they introduce the Premium sync services between online, desktop and mobile versions of the service, at which point you’ll be in full control of every messages coming at you 24/7. If you’re up to the job, that is. Interesting product all round.
Inbox2 collects all your messages, documents, links and contacts from these accounts in one convenient place and allows you to read, reply, search and be productive without having to login to multiple accounts. The Inbox2 platform is designed to reduce the complexity around the current email programs and add-ons needed to fulfill the demands of today’s savvy Web2.0 ‘prosumers’ (professional consumers).
