While there is no shortage of collaboration apps available to businesses these days, OSIX Corporation’s Speedshare stands out because it allows users to collaborate and co-browse using only a Web browser.
"We believe Websharing is the next evolution in Web browsing and an enabler of the real-time Web," said OSIX CEO Cary Cole. "The purpose of Speedshare is to get everyone on the same page; to remove any obstacles to communication and collaboration. In a short amount of time we won't be able to remember when the Web wasn't a shared experience."
The company, based in Redwood City, Calif., just south of San Francisco, has already raised $5 million in funding.
What makes Speedshare stand out from solutions like WebEx and GoToMeeting is that it works within a Web browser without the need to install any additional software. The advantage of doing it this way is that it’s easier and quicker to set up a meeting using Speedshare than with other methods.
"Web-based meeting and collaboration platforms might work fine, but it takes five minutes to start a meeting," Cole said in a TechTarget article."With Speedshare, you can be interacting together after one click."
Users can sign up for free on the Speedshare site and then email collaborators a link to the page to be shared.
One major use has been with training new employees. Instead of showing new hires slides demonstrating web apps, trainees and managers can use a real version, giving them valuable hands-on experience.
The idea of browser-based collaboration appears to be taking off. The latest version of Mozilla Firefox bundles a WebRTC client, which allows for video conferencing without the need for apps like Skype (News - Alert). Even though it might strike some longtime users as ironic given that Firefox’s initial rationale was its simplicity compared with the original Mozilla (News - Alert) suite, there’s a real demand for browser-based communication as the Web moves away from the mess of plug-ins like Flash.
Edited by Alisen Downey