Vyew presents a simple and well organized interface that displays a whiteboard by default. On the top of the page, you can see two labels named "VyewBook" and "PhotoShow", which correspond to the two main functions of this service.
Vyew Book's navigation bar shows the main commands that are available to the user: you can start by displaying a blank page and then take screenshots and share them with others. The featured whiteboard enables you to draw and annotate over any slide or shared-screen picture; this tool can be used by all participants.
All the files displayed on Vyew are ready for mark-up through a toolbar that appears by clicking on the "Draw" button at the bottom of the page. Features include: select, draw, line, circle, rectangle, erase, resize, text and a shareable red pointer.
It is possible to load files from your hard disk by simply clicking on the folder icon; uploaded files will be permanently stored in Vyew's database, unless you decide to delete them. Users can also upload images from online photo libraries, such as Yahoo! Photos, Kodak Library and Flickr.
Another feature enables Vyew participants to share an interactive Yahoo! Map of the U.S., view traffic reports and locate places of interest with the search function. Users can also draw on maps, which can be very useful to people who are planning trips.
Vyew also offers the possibility to search on Google within the meeting virtual room and automatically share results that can also be marked-up by all the participants.
By clicking on the "PhotoShow" label, users can access a tool that provides the possibility for a slide-show of all the files that are loaded on Vyew, and also to add background music in order to create dynamic presentations. Supported files are .ppt, .doc, .pdf, .xls, .jpg, .txt, .gif, .swf and more. Features include: forward, backward, page control, zoom in and zoom out.
All the participants to a Vyew meeting are able to text chat and to create private chat rooms.
Unregistered users can organize meetings with up to 2 participants, while registered users are allowed to create rooms with up to 20 participants, promote meetings, demote presenters or viewers, and lock the meeting. users have also a maximum of 10 MB storage, while a limited number of uploaded files can be automatically converted to a format downloadable for Vyew PhotoShow.
Registered users have their own meeting IDs and they can invite guests via email or via instant messenger. When inviting a guest to the virtual room, registered users can decide whether to assign him/her the status of a presenter or a viewer. Presenters can take advantage of all the tools that Vyew provides, such as annotate, save, delete, upload and share screenshots; on the other hand, viewers do not have the ability to do anything but watch what is going on. However, the creator of the meeting can change the status of the guests at any time.
Upcoming features for registered users are a printer driver that will allow them to print any printable driver file directly to the remote storage and to the Vyew PhotoShow and secure SSL connections for safe uploading and downloading of files.
Vyew is currently in beta (v0.29U) and it requires no downloading and no software installation.
It works on every operating system, but at this time, Mac users may experience slight problems while using the screen capture feature.
Supported browsers are Internet Explorer 5.5 (and above), Firefox 1.4 (and above) and Safari; regardless of your browser type, it must be Flash 8.0 and JRE (Java) 1.4 (or later) enabled. In spite of this, Firefox users may have technical hitches with the screen capture feature, for which, users can refer to the Help menu in the meeting window.
During this beta period Vyew is free to use, and developers have not yet decided whether it will be an ad supported free service, a paid service, or a combination of the two. If you sign up now, you will be provided with the registered users features for at least two years.
On the Vyew web site a one minute demonstration shows you how to use Vyew, and take advantage of it. You can find it the link to it at the top right of the homepage.
FAQs and instructions are available both on the home page and the dedicated forum, where users can contribute to Vyew's development with their suggestions and bug reports. The forum also contains resources that users can share with each other (such as graphics and other files).
Editor's comments:
Vyew is truly an innovative service which deserves attention.
This is not a breakthrough solution but it is a highly innovative tool, that greatly simplifies online collaboration for the vast population of non-technical users.
Highly appreciated is all of Vyew interface design as well as the attention it has placed on interaction tools and the ease with which they can be accessed.
Also highly effective is Vyew own marketing approach and communication strategy. The one minute animated demo accessible from the home page is a simple jewel of communication effectiveness and simplicity. Anyone can understand what is being said, and there is no use of technical terminology or buzzwords that intimidate the casual user. Information is simple, essential, straight to the facts and privy of marketing hype.
Interaction with users through an open ear available to listen to bugs reports and requests for new features is available through the Vyew forum.
Hats to Vyew for providing the online collaboration marketplace with a truly valuable addition, and one which other players should be looking at for inspiration.
