All-chatting-calling e-mail is here
Special Correspondent
Bangalore: A year-old U.S.-based Internet application developer has just
released a tool that significantly pushes the envelope of seamless, global
communication.
Yoomba's offering of the same name, allows any one with an e-mail address to
contact any other e-mail addressee ... and with a click of the mouse, convert
the off-line contact into an instant chat based on text messages - or even a
live voice call.
The beauty of Yoomba lies in its simplicity: Well-known e-mail services such as
GMail, YahooMail or MSN offer instant communication modes like live chat
- but they work only within the mail group. That means GMail can chat with
GMail only. And Net telephone applications such as Skype also work within closed
groups.
Now, we are offered a tool that bypasses the administration of individual
e-mail services and allows one to chat instantly or talk, as one would on the
telephone, with any other e-mail address owner, using what is known as
peer-to-peer networking.
The tool is a free service from
www.yoomba.com
and by just entering your e-mail ID at the site, you initiate action to
receive a key for the download which takes less than five minutes at typical
connection
speeds in India. Once installed, you can activate all e-mail accounts and make
them Yoomba-enabled.
Of course, you must invest in a head-phone-microphone combo (which costs a
couple of hundred rupees) and connect it to your PC if you want to use Yoomba
to make telephone calls.
Invitation
The first time that you try to call or instant-chat with another e-mail
address, Yoomba will send an e-mail invitation inviting the recipient to install
the software. Once your friend does that - you are all set. Just clicking on
the phone icon besides the e-mail ID in your address book, sets off a very
realistic ring tone at both ends... and the two parties are talking to each
other! When this correspondent tried it out with a few friends the quality
was excellent. You can also switch to the loudspeakers of your PC or use a
built-in mike. Yoomba is so simple, anyone from age 7 to 70 can be up and
running
with the tool in minutes. It allows you to invite all the people on your
regular mailing list to join in. But you need to use this feature with some
care,
otherwise you will be sending out spam to a lot of angry e-mailers!
At the global launch of the product on Friday (Indian time) Yoomba
founder-Chief Executive Elad Hemar is reported to have said that he planned to
keep the
service free for now - and make money through advertisements. Yoomba is a
compelling application that one hopes no one will throttle it at birth.
http://www.thehindu.com/2007/07/15/stories/2007071555201100.htm
Vikas Kapoor,
MSN+Yahoo+Skype ID: dl_vikas,
Mobile: (+91) 9891098137.
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