Plug and Play services

Last Updated on Monday, 14 August 2006 08:08 Written by Steve Monday, 14 August 2006 03:06

Great tip from Mark late last week: you can embed a Meebo chat window in your Salesforce home page. Can be a nice way to be instantly available to folks with questions.

So why is this interesting? Live chat on the web has been around for a long time. Plus, you already know how to reach me, and I’m not interested in putting myself out there as available for chat in all my customer sites. But the functionality isn’t the point, it’s the architecture of the solution.

The really cool thing about this example is that it is a specific service that can be easily plugged in where I need it with 3 lines of code. It’s a Flash component that works in any web page, not just Salesforce.com. Do 5 minutes of config, grab the 3 lines of code, and put them where you want them. Done.

I’ve been running across more and more of these lately, web apps that are designed to be dropped into another website as a component, providing some functionality in your UI.

This chat widget took me 10 minutes to set up, thanks to the enablers at meebo.com and Salesforce.com. It just reinforces for me that the interconnecting of smaller web apps in service of larger problems is the way to go. Single software products that can do everything are dead. The age of plug and play components is upon us. These components serve relatively circumscribed needs right now (mapping, chat, search, etc.) but will amaze us as they start to become increasingly complex over the next few years.

NPower New York hiring two Salesforce.com consultants

Last Updated on Monday, 14 August 2006 10:38 Written by Steve Monday, 14 August 2006 10:38

My friends at NPower New York are hiring a Salesforce.com Implementation Consultant and a Salesforce.com Project Manager on contract. It’s a great organization, and they’re doing really interesting projects for big nonprofits in New York.

If you’re in NYC, drop them a line.

NYC Bike Messenger Ballet

Last Updated on Saturday, 12 August 2006 03:11 Written by Steve Saturday, 12 August 2006 03:07

Why do bike messengers have the life span of a mayfly? Check out this evidence: