Rapidly Moving Ahead on the Outside Is...

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Posted by Daly de Gagne
May 11, 2008 at 03:34 AM

Surfulater!

Predictions in politics is said to be like predicting horseraces.

The same could be said about predicting software races.

I mean, 18 months ago, who would have ADM would break a leg in the home stretch of the Beijing Derby.

Now we have see some exciting new moves in the software sweepstakes.

Evernote, WebResearch, and Surfulater have all made moves up the outside in recent days. UltraRecall, MyInfo, and Zoot may all have reason to be looking over their shoulders.

Evernote’s attempt to take over desktop, web, and mobile in one fell swoop shows appreciation of Web2 capabilities that is refreshing. Some of what we’ve been seeing in terms of shared office suites and GTD and similar apps was getting to be a little old hat.

And these days, it doesn’t take all that long for something to be old hat.

WebResearch has made some interesting developments—but its developers still don’t seem to realize how much of the market is not tied to Explorer because it doesn’t wish to be harnessed to an inferior browser, and is willing to favour software that recognizes Firefox and Opera, the place and show browsers respectively.

Surfulater has long been more Firefox friendly, and has now adopted tags, in keeping with WebResearch and Evernote (whose files are really tags, begging the question of whether good cloning removes a need to designate both files and tags).

Surfulater has both a file tree, and has long had an elegant approach to cloning within the tree.

But the tree can get long.

And sometimes there are very broad, or very specific, headings or keywords you want to hop to in an instant.

With its new tag tree, Surfulater does that with its separate tag tree, a feature WR has long had.

But if one looks at how Surfulater’s design has been advancing, it seems that perhaps more than EN or WR, it is placed to run neck and neck with MyInfo and UltraRecall in the metadata stretch—and in this market, that’s the home stretch.

Surfulater has always had a few stock note templates. So has EN. EN, however, has done little, if anything, to add to their templates.

But looking at Surfulater now, I note that they have a couple of templates that intrigue me—one is for quotes, and one is for texts and authors. Both have a space for keywords as well as tags. Interesting.

As I quickly go through the latest version of Surfulater, I think Neville, its developer, has gone way beyond the program’s origins as a web clipper, and is layering in the basics for a much more comprehensive, all-in-one information manager, If I remember correctly, he has also written about developing a web presence.

Of the frontrunners, which I consider UR (for its webclipping and meta/info capability), and MyInfo (for its meta/info capability), my prediction is MI will fall behind because of its its poor ability to deal with web clippings, and refusal to consider hoisting until at least version 5 (according to a comment in the forum from Pteko, its developer).

That could leave UR, Surfulater, and the also fast moving EverNote, in the first three.

EN has bet the store on a major remake for version 3. In beta form, it is looking good, and keeps enough of what people are familiar with that they are not driven away (as unfortunately seems to be the case with MDE InfoHandler). I think EN will be successful in keeping a place or show.

Similarly with Surfulater. Neville, who is following a different pathway (what do you expect from a guy who lives on the upside down side of the globe—a Cannuck’s friendly dig at an Aussie!) that may well end up with an ability to do desktop, web, and mobile all in one.

Where Surfulater may have an edge is with a more tree-based metaphor, which lends itself more readily to eventual column development than EN’s design would appear to do. Also, I suspect that Neville has noted that the main bibliography programs, such as IdeaMason, ndXcards, and Biblioscape are not nearly as web friendly as Surfulater. With so many students researching from the web, that’s a big omission, and although Biblioscape does have a web module, it is not as good as Surfulater. Of course, Surfulater has to go a ways to get the bib capabilities of any of the specialized programs. It will be interesting to see what Neville does.

And Steve Z. is wondering why I haven’t mentioned Zoot.

I am as well, except that until we see how it looks in its next major update (about six weeks away, according to a statement from The Admiral, its developer, this last week in the forum) with file limitations removed and RTF enhanced, I tend to see it as a dark horse. If there is a commonality between Zoot and Surfulater, it is their developers. Both are always responsive, friendly, and helpful—and both seem to take users’ requests most seriously. Tom and Neville, you make the world of info software more personal and friendlier than it would otherwise be. Thanks mates!

If the Admiral holds true to course, and the dark horse takes wing (how’s that for a sea, land and air metaphor in one!), it could be a whole new race. Zoot with web clip and storage capabilities could make it *the* killer ap.

Here’s a hint to all the developers: What is the limiting factor in people adopting your product?

Clearly, it is this (and no insults or disrespect meant to the people who are not among the ones I describe below, and among which I include myself):
* We all have information.
* We know how to use computers, but we are, as a group, pretty poor at managing information with or without computers.
* Throw the best info management software at us, and we will use such a small part of its potential that it is pathetic.
* Good technical writing, which takes us by the hand, gives us the ABCs of info management, and then clearly and concisely shows us how to do the ABCs on your software, and then move on up to post-secondary levels of info management, is critical.

A good example of a bad example is the documentation with UR—lots of talk about features, but people like me are left scratching their heads about how to do the basics.

A good example of a better example is Zoot which, admittedly, is not the most intuitive program in the world, though one of the best in its field. Lots of people, including professional writers, have made efforts to explain how to use Zoot.

What really helps are those true to life examples of writers, therapists, small business owners, and how they set up their kit.

Anyhow, enough for now.

And if it is a race between the newly upgraded programs mentioned this week, I predict Surfulater, EverNote, and WebResearch for win, place, and show.

Congratulations to the developers of all three programs for taking seriously the movements in the marketplace, and responding in such robust fashion.

Daly

Posted by JJ
May 12, 2008 at 01:33 PM

I agree with most… but WR is FireFox friendly (I use WR with FF)

The 2 BIG things with WR’s new release are:

#1. Integration with Windows Desktop Search. This is really great because now I have a unified search engine that will index/search all my docs PLUS anything I put into WR.

#2. WR now indexes/searches/views all MS Office docs plus PDFs.

I believe UR is in the lead with WR closing fast. I don’t think WR will overtake UR, but that’s OK. I believe many/most people don’t want/need all the power of UR…

-jj

Posted by dan7000
May 12, 2008 at 04:36 PM

What about OneNote? It’s got a (3d party add-on) web clipper that I find works better than EN’s. It supports far better rich formatting than EN, too. I miss the ability to see a tree view or a usable tag list with OneNote, but surely it’s in the race somewhere.

Posted by Daly de Gagne
May 13, 2008 at 04:55 PM

JJ, thanks for correcting me re WebResearch and Firefox—you are correct, it is Firefox friendly. My apologies to all concerned, including the developers of WR.

Daly

JJ wrote:
>I agree with most… but WR is FireFox friendly (I use WR with FF)
> >The 2 BIG things with
>WR’s new release are:
> >#1. Integration with Windows Desktop Search. This is really
>great because now I have a unified search engine that will index/search all my docs
>PLUS anything I put into WR.
> >#2. WR now indexes/searches/views all MS Office docs
>plus PDFs.
> >I believe UR is in the lead with WR closing fast. I don’t think WR will
>overtake UR, but that’s OK. I believe many/most people don’t want/need all the power
>of UR…
> >-jj
> >

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