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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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Jott does just what it says it will

imageAt the recommendation of my friend Pete Shinbach, I’ve been playing with Jott, a new online service currently in public beta. So far, I love this service both for its simplicity and the fact that it meets a real need.

Once you have an account, which synchs with your cell phone number, you set up lists of people with whom you want to communicate. Let’s say you work for a department that meets each Tuesday at 8 a.m., but you’re stuck in traffic. Call Jott and record a message saying, “I’m late, but start the meeting without me.” That message will be transcribed and sent as a text message and/or email to the other members of the department.

You’re automatically set up as a group yourself. I can easily see myself driving somewhere and suddenly remembering something I need to do. I call Jott (which is already in my cell phone autodial listing), speak the message, and within seconds, it has arrived as a text message and an email, serving as a reminder once I get back to the office.

Jott has launched new functionality this week, allowing you to send your messages to services like Twitter and Jaiku. I tested it on Twitter, and it worked reasonably well, although it misspelled “Cisco.” Fortunatley, if you think the transcribing might err in spelling what you’ve said correctly, you can spell it out instead of simply speak it.

Shel Holtz

The service is free and, so far, I think it rocks.

09/06/07 | 7 Comments | Jott does just what it says it will

Comments
  • 1.I'm happy to read that your buddy recommended Jott you. It is a simple yet powerful app! Now that Jott has gone Web 2.0 with their new features, you can see the vast growth of the company and can foresee only the success they will have! And Jott manages to keep it free still!

    Jessie | September 2007

  • 2.I started using Jott about six months ago and loved it at first. I stopped using it for a brief while and the next time I tried to use it, the service no longer recognized me as a customer. How frustrating. When I really needed it, I couldn't use it.

    Perhaps I'll try it again now that they've introduced integration with Twitter. As usual, thanks for keeping me in the loop.

    Eden Spodek | September 2007 | Toronto

  • 3.The Jott to Twitter service has one - fatal, i think - flaw, which is that it appends a "powered by Jott" adline to your Twitter messages. Worse still, if your message plus their tagline exceeds Twitter's 140-character limit, they cut part of your message to make room for their tagline... and your message is gone for good. That little line is a significant portion of the maximum Twitter message length. If the tagline fits, I think it's understandable - they are providing a free service - but if it doesn't, it should go, not the customer's messages.

    John Whiteside | September 2007 | Houston, TX

  • 4.That doesn't bother me, John. I use TwitKu more often than the Twitter interface, which allows me to send simultaneously to my Twitter and my Jaiku accounts. TwitKu also appends the messages. Hardly a fatal flaw from my perspective, espeically since I'm more likely to call in a tweet when I'm not near a computer than I am to remember to do it later.

    Shel Holtz | September 2007 | Concord, CA

  • 5.I've used Jott a fair bit over the last few months, though I haven't yet tested it with Twitter (thanks for the reminder!)

    The transcriptions can be pretty amusing, too. When I last heard, they were be done by operators in India.

    Bryan Person, Bryper.com | September 2007 | Boston

  • 6.John - you have a pretty interesting case there. However it being a free service, I can see why it would do that. Now I'd be totally irrate if it wasn't! But you should bring that up to the Jott team.

    Besides that... I I'm totally diggin the Twitter Jott Link! I've never used Twitter until now and it is pretty neat. I linked it to my MySpace account (since most of my friends are myspace junkies), so I can be tracked easily. Also I noticed when using that link to post to Myspace or Facebook, etc.... Jott only puts (by jott.com) IF anything! Currently I don't have it, so I don't think that is a problem at all!

    Jane | September 2007

  • 7.Next Friday I’m going to be participating as a panelist in a webcast sponsored by HealthLeadersMedia.com. It’s entitled “The Future of Healthcare Marketing: Blogs, podcasts and other new media.“
    Other panelists include Nick Jac...

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