Publicare's web conferencing comparison site (www.webconferencing-test.com) has been updated with comparisons of additional conferencing software and some adjustments to their scoring system. They now have "User-friendliness" and "Speed of setting up a meeting" as the two most highly weighted components, with feature/functionality and cost coming in as lesser items.
User friendliness is of course a very subjective matter, and the relative importance of these factors may well be different in your list of considerations. That is why I am always leery when I see a single-figure summary of a complex evaluation (I'll bet Roger Ebert kicks himself for ever coming up with the silly "thumbs-up/thumbs-down" summary that has largely replaced his fully considered reviews in most people's minds). Still, let's see what came in at the top of the heap for Publicare.
Citrix GoToMeeting and WebEx MeetMeNow come out at the head of the class. Following them are Netviewer one2meet and Acrobat Connect. Strangely, Microsoft Office Live Meeting rounds out the bottom of the top contenders. I say "strangely" because the primary function of the other software packages is collaborative group meetings, while Live Meeting (nee Placeware) was created primarily for one-to-many webinars. It should really be going up against Acrobat Connect Professional, Citrix GoToWebinar, and WebEx Event Center with a different set of criteria.
There are additional solutions presented on a secondary page that were not included in the overall listing. Again, the comparisons of like to like are a bit curious, for instance pitting Acrobat Connect Professional against something like BeamYourScreen in the same criteria battle is like putting an SUV up against a golf cart. They each have their place and their applications, and I wouldn't want to swap them between intended use environments!
When I first saw the webconferencing-test site I was critical and cynical. But I must say that the site looks great now (I wish my website looked that good!) and carries some excellent information that is valuable to anyone seeking additional data to help them narrow down their conferencing provider choices. I applaud Publicare for taking the time, effort, and expense to make the results available for free to the general public. That is true public care!
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