Thats Interesting

The review team at odinjobs.com showcases up and coming companies and their products. Who knows one of them may be the next Google.

---

Can’t Afford Adobe? Hit the PDFescape route.

---

Given the ubiquitous nature of PDF forms, PDFescape is right there among winning applications. Easy to use, online, PDFescape allows you to download, fill, edit, and even create your own PDF forms. For free with no side effects like installation or downloading.

But doesn’t everyone have an Adobe Reader?

Surprisingly, no. PDFescape scores for having looked at the whole PDF phenomenon from a small to medium consumer point of view. While big companies don’t blink while buying and installing expensive software, for a smaller guy, getting into the whole Adobe wagon for the sake of a few forms simply doesn’t work.

And here’s how it works for the user.

The PDFescape package works from helping you create forms to filling out those found on other sites. PDFescape, drawing on its original application PDFtypewriter allows you to open PDF files on the web or on your computer. You can create your own forms, fill them, add text, images and fields. Files can be saved and e-mailed. PDFescape express uploads PDF forms onto your website HTML, so that PDF files now get embedded into your website. Users can see your PDF forms online, fill and save them as well. This reduces the whole faxing, printing and physical paperwork side of things.

The icing on the cake - tax forms, job applications and any document requiring a PDF format become easy with PDFescape.

Prweb agrees.

Typically, enabling a PDF to be saved requires hundreds of dollars of software and potentially thousands of dollars in server license fees. PDFescape Express is one of the online first products to offer this service free of charge. PDFescape Express will automatically display PDF files to online viewers in an attractive reader frame.

Currently, PDFescape is compatible with all operating systems supporting Firefox 1.5+ or 2+, Internet Explorer 6+ or 7+, or Safari, including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Add a valid email id and an active internet connection and get going.

The word from killerstartups:

PDFescape enables its users to professionally complete tax forms, job applications, and other documents distributed in the PDF format. PDFescape requires a modern web browser and an active internet connection. That's it. It doesn't require the download, purchase, or installation of any software.

PDFescape In Chat Mode

For those who have not heard of PDF escape, what are the main benefits of using your product?

Originally modelled on our desktop software PDFtypewriter (see http://www.pdftypewriter.com), PDFescape is an online application which replicates many of the features found in software such as Adobe Acrobat Professional. We like to think of PDFescape as not just an online PDF reader, but a PDF editor, form filler, and form creator. It really goes above and beyond what your typical PDF reader does, which is the mistake many people make at first glance.

There are other online offerings which allow the creation of PDF files. PDFescape was the first to let you actually work with the document.

Best of all, users of Windows, Mac OS X, and most Linux distributions can use PDFescape without downloading or installing any software. PDFescape does not require Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, or any other software beyond a compatible web browser such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari.

How did you all come up with the idea for PDF Escape?

When we first started planning out PDFescape over a year ago, we noticed a serious gap in the online document web application offerings. Google has Word and Excel documents covered pretty well. Zoho overlaps with Google, also bringing some presentation and database application capability. There simply was no good offering for PDF files. PDF files are more common on the web than just about any other file format, HTML excluded of course.

What type of programming is PDF Escape built on?

I can't go into great detail about the behind the scenes workings of PDFescape. But the programming foundation of PDFescape is built using a combination of compiled C, COM, SQL, and ASP. We hope to venture into .NET in the coming months, however because we also offer a deployable version for our enterprise customers, being as backwards compatible as possible was important (see http://enterprise.pdfescape.com).

In your growth stages, what characteristics will you look for in potential employees?

While we aren't hiring currently, we are always looking for enthusiast individuals to come forward. When we do start looking though, marketers and programmers with strong PDF or network scaling backgrounds will be critical.

Who are your ideal users?
PDFescape targets two distinct user groups.

First, the person with a PDF form that really needs to be filled out. Many people can't afford expensive tools such as Adobe Acrobat Professional and only have a handful of forms they need to fill out and save. Adobe Reader typically doesn't allow you to save PDF files after filling them out, PDFescape offers a great service to these people who otherwise would need to purchase very expensive software.

Second, the forward thinking company with forms to be filled. Many companies have forms for their customers. Car rental agencies, tax preparation services, government offices, the list goes on. Many companies want to enable their PDF to be saved using something like Adobe Reader, however doing so again requires very expensive software and licensing to be purchase from Adobe. PDFescape can accept PDF forms to be "published" to it. These forms uploaded to our servers can be worked with and saved online, without the end user ever needing to download or install any software. This is especially great for forward thinking companies which want to be Mac OS X and Linux friendly. The default PDF viewing application in OS X, Preview, doesn't even support form fields. Linking your forms to PDFescape allows companies to keep their forms in the format they already love (PDF), while making it very friendly and easy for their customers.

What are some of the problems with online forms?

The major problem from a company perspective is that typical HTML online web forms really aren't standardized. When bridging the paper / paperless gap, presentation and format are important; PDF forms are the obvious choice. The problem is that while most companies can afford the software to create and work with PDF files, the average form consumer can't or simply doesn't know how. PDFescape makes it easy for the customer. The customer can fill out the form in the format the company wants, without having to deal with the confusion (or expense) often associated with PDF files. PDFescape really brings the ease of working with a simple HTML web form to the PDF file format.

What types of sites or businesses would make great partners with PDF Escape?

Any business with a web presence and the need to have forms filled out. We'd love to see all government forms be released onto our system. Especially as Linux and Mac OS X gain a greater percentage of the market, cross platform web applications like PDFescape are going to become more important. If PDF is going to continue to be chosen as the form file format of choice, it needs to be more accessible. PDFescape makes PDF forms more accessible.

PDFescape – No Escaping This Phenomenon

Be it open source or web based free-for-all versions of office tools, the writing on the wall is clear. The traditional way of writing and selling software needs serious rethinking. For smart companies like PDFescape are always out there, changing not just the rules, but the game itself. And they picked the most common and often tedious part of the process, the PDF. If I were Adobe, I’d be seriously worried. If I were Microsoft, I’d be even more worried. For these new applications, including some we’ve featured (Zoho, Clicky, Near Time) are all out there, luring the customer with not just a tempting offering, but one that’s free as well.

Posted by Sally Richardsson       Posted at 02:50AM Jun 20, 2007 by Sally Richardsson   


Create a Profile or Upload Your Resume and Get Your Perfect Job.

---

Near Time - The Big Wiki Wave Begins!

---

Near Time is right there at the head of the pack. Based at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Near Time’s on-line collaboration platform, with plug-ins that include instant messaging, live presentation tools and shared, secured online workspace, has received flattering attention and even more flattering funding to the tune of $2.25 million from Wakefield and Bruce Boehm.

Near Time uses the innate user friendliness of Wiki to its advantage, creating a tool that even the most tech-phobic can be made to try. At a base level, it’s an online space for file sharing, collaborating, blogging, scheduling (it has a web calendar) and knowledge sharing between team members. It comes complete with editing tools for uploading and managing anything from word documents to multimedia files. Tags and links are part of the set up, to allow everyone to see the work process and access files. Near Time offers multiple levels of access. Users can decide the level by choosing options such as editor, author, commenter, or reader, thus clearly defining public and private spaces online. RSS and pod-casts are also possible.

Being a hosted product, Near Time needs no installation and no management.

The word from Carol S. Holzberg at machome

Web publishing glitches notwithstanding, Near- Time Current provides a streamlined environment for viewing, manipulating and authoring web based information in a familiar Home page format, thus contributing to the ever-expanding dominance of the web as our workspace of choice.

An even better review from infoworld ranked Near Time the best among peer applications like Social text and Atlassian Confluence.

Near-Time integrates a group Weblog with wiki pages, team event calendar, and shared files through a secure hosted service. The system makes it easy to invite members and control access rights, plus there’s easy page editing and news posting. Content’s organized with categories and tags, which are also used for advanced searches.

And for the “seeing is believing” school, we found a neat video review of how exactly Near Time works.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CdltFz7NgCw

In their own words – a chat with Near Time

How is Near Time superior to other online collaboration tools available?

Near Time was developed to help organizations that are more distributed. Given the Increasing number of consultants & contractors and outsourcing, the need for a collaboration platform is evident. A typical system has internal firewalls that are too rigid. Imagine running a business with 1000 business professionals in 40 countries!

How does the RSS feed feature help users?

It’s a faster, lighter way to share info and many use it with their mobile phone. Many clients use it for rich media such as pod casting, although the use for business is still in the developmental stage.

What are the capabilities 60 day trial versus the full versions?
The trial version has all the capabilities of the full version.

Who are your ideal clients?
Small & medium size business. Sales & marketing professional who really like their tools.

Where do you see the movement of web 2.0 sites going in the next 3 years?

We are seeing a trend to privately collaborate then distribute to the interested parties, get feedback then take the info to other media

How does Near Time compare to Google Docs and Speadsheets feature?

NT focuses on collaboration in documents, but can work within spreadsheets. It is built to integrate with weblogs & wikis where people collaborate with each other privately to share publicly.

Are there new products or features that will be released this year?

We currently allow advertising through Near time. Later this year we will offer a premium version that will allow our clients to charge members to join the community they build

Are there any limits in the amount or number of users for Near Time?

The invitations are unlimited and collaborations will vary in size. Some operate in a small space, others a large space, others are open to the public, NFL for example…allows clients to build communities based on interests, such as marketing etc.

Information and web content are so vital to web sites, how does Near Time help with tagging and sharing with others?

NT supports any applications that use categories or tags such as Near Time.

Near Time – It’s High Time

Though no new company actually says they are competition to the big M, the fact is all around us we are seeing the road to a Window-less world. Where applications will have to seamlessly move from online to offline and offer meaningful features in an increasingly dispersed work environment. And smart players like Near Time have already moved off the block. The only question is, whether they can keep up this pace of innovation and keep those clients logged in!

Posted by Sally Richardsson       Posted at 08:56AM Jun 14, 2007 by Sally Richardsson   


Create a Profile or Upload Your Resume and Get Your Perfect Job.

---

Honey, I Shrunk the URL

---

DwarfURL launched in April 2007 at Pawtucket, Rhode Island by David Berube, can shorten a large web address with just a simple click. Give your original URL to their little dwarves and watch them shrink it, anywhere from an unsightly 250 characters to a sleek 16 characters.

Why Is It Exciting?
A shorter URL makes it easier for people to use your URL or email it. And why is this earth-shatteringly important? Given the rise of “Twitter” and mobiles to access the net and share content, a long URL eats up precious character space. So if you are not the right size, you’re going to be left out of the burgeoning mobile-net market.

The Dwarves At Work
DwarfURL has not restricted itself only to shortening URLs, but goes further by allowing users to track the number of visitors. The site has also got its Firefox extension taped. This feature allows you to simply click a button in your browser and get a shortened URL automatically.

With a database at their fingertips, the company is all set for new features like tracking popular links, etc. The services are free, for DwarfURL has gone the advertising route to generate revenues.

Lockergnome for instance finds DwarfURL fascinating

"DwarfURL does that job when it comes to giving you a quick and easy way of creating short URLs out of long ones. The magic does not end there, though. It also promises to give you stats for your link, so you can keep up with who’s clicking and why."

The competition is (no puns intended) from tinyURL.com, but as mashable sums it aptly:

TinyURL + Stats = DwarfURL

The Long And Short Of It – A Chat With DwarfURL

1. What inspired the start of DwarfURL?

TinyURL. I’m the CEO of Swift Blue LLC, we make small web applications that go to market quickly. I saw that lots of people were using a short URL service for various things, and I recognized that we could do it a bit better, so we did.

2. What types of programs were used to build Dwarfurl?

dwarfURL is built in PHP and uses a MySQL database. We made the graphics in Adobe Illustrator and most of our coding is done in DreamWeaver.

3. Who are your ideal users?

Those that install the FireFox extension and repeatedly use our service!

4. How is Dwarfurl superior to your competition?

We offer more information than anyone else in this industry. Users can track their link shrinking history as well as their analytical statistics for the links they’ve created. We also offer a FireFox extension that was developed directly with dwarfURL, which, I don’t believe any other short URL service offers.

5. What is your opinion on the growth of Firefox over the last few years?

I’m glad to see it become more “mainstream”. I’ve been using it for a few years now, and I only open up Internet Explorer to check our web development to ensure that it looks the same in all browsers.

6. How significant is the problem of a long url?

I’d say that the problem is a bit new in a way. More and more consumers will be getting high-speed internet on their phone, and they may want to send a link to a friend via SMS. SMS messages have a limit of 160 characters and a good number of links will exceed that limit. Also with Twitter becoming more popular a lot of people send URL’s to their friends this way. Again, Twitter has a 160 character limit, so a short URL service is definitely needed.

7. What sites or businesses would make great partners for Dwarfurl?

The most obvious at this time is Twitter. But we’d like to make a move into the developing mobile market where I think URL shortening services may have their biggest impact. We also have plans to implement dwarfURL into FamFridge (www.famfridge.com) which is a quasi-stealth startup I am the CEO of.

Dwarf – Small And Deadly!

Be in or be dead. Services like DwarfURL are just indications of how mobiles are going to be the biggest influencers on web applications, something we had already predicted in our earlier post on Gumiyo. So DwarfURL has the advantage of being in the right space at the right time and given their penchant for adding value to their offering, this little Dwarf is soon to hit it big.

Posted by Sally Richardsson       Posted at 01:18AM Jun 14, 2007 by Sally Richardsson   


Create a Profile or Upload Your Resume and Get Your Perfect Job.

---