Yuuguu: Online Collaboration via Major IM Clients

Yahoo!, GTalk, AIM, ICQ and MSN users on Linux, Mac or Windows computers can now, for free, perform online collaboration and Web conferencing activities with the latest release of Yuuguu. The company has proudly announced its support for major instant messaging (IM) players for their flagship collaboration and conferencing product.We have previously covered Yuuguu, and we were quite impressed with the possibilities of the application. Web conferencing and remote desktop are two features that are commonly desired within enterprise environments, large or small. Well, now anyone can collaborate through the Internet using familiar IM clients (the only notable exception being Skype). Yuuguu operates similarly to any other instant messaging client: download the client, install the client, add accounts and connect with other contacts. With the Yuuguu client users can invite users to share screens with nothing more than an e-mail address. However, users can also add accounts from GTalk, AIM, MSN, ICQ and Yahoo! to instantly perform screen sharing/conferencing with contacts from those respective accounts.

The Yuuguu desktop client

After inviting up to 30 users, the invitees are sent an e-mail where they can then see the user's screen through a flash-enabled Web browser. There is no software to download. Users communicate through a chat room integrated into the application's Web interface. Users can also participate in voice conferencing. The host can communicate with several people at once, giving professional quality presentations through a simple phone call. However, this feature is not free (except in the U.S.), but it is relatively cheap compared to existing alternatives. Currently, this is how the company generates money by taking a portion of the voice conferencing cost as revenue. Yuuguu is currently working on premium services to help generate additional revenue, and it will do this by offering better services and functionality that will likely be useful in corporate environments. These premium services are expected to be released in 2009. Anyone interested in trying out Yuuguu can do so by simply downloading the Yuuguu client. Users can link their existing instant messaging accounts with Yuuguu and then proceed to collaborate with others around the world.