即時通信應用：花樣越來越多，效率越來越低
Barb Darrow
2018-08-29
The Scream? Photograph by UIG via Getty Images
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對于許多在分散式組織，特別在家中辦公的人而言，即時通信應用，如Slack、Jive和Yammer等，都是至關重要的工具。但許多人使用的通信應用不止于此。新聞愛好者們將Twitter作為新聞來源，以及快速獲得流行語和專業知識的渠道。 BetterCloud公司剛剛發布了一份很有意思的最新研究成果。這項研究發現，在參與調查的大公司中，57%使用兩種甚至更多的即時通信產品。更令人吃驚的是，20%的大公司使用5種（高達5種?。┗?種以上的即時通信應用。這個數字聽起來很令人震驚——直到我統計了一下自己使用的工具數量。 在工作中，我們的編輯團隊基本上離不開Slack。而在個人應用方面，情況則變得更加復雜。 某些聯系人將Google Chat或Hangouts作為首選溝通渠道。而制作播客的朋友，則選擇微軟的Skype。 另外，如前文所述，還有Twitter，這樣一來，我自己使用的消息應用便有5種之多。 別著急，還有更多！有一些老朋友和長期消息來源更喜歡通過Facebook消息應用保持聯系，而對于其他商業聯系人，LinkedIn的消息應用依舊是一個重要的溝通渠道。如此一來，數量增加到了7種。 此外，實話實說，如果蘋果公司沒有放棄對AOL Instant Messenger的支持，我依舊會使用這款產品。它絕對是即時通信產品的鼻祖。（理論上，你依舊可以通過iChat訪問這款應用，但使用體驗實在太過痛苦。） Backblaze公司首席執行官格萊布·布德曼同樣經歷過“過度連接”所帶來的痛苦。他有一些聯系人使用Google Chat和Hangouts、LinkedIn以及Facebook，他通常會選擇最適合對方的溝通渠道。 Backblaze公司曾嘗試過基于狀態的即時聊天應用Sqwiggle，后來選擇了目前的平臺Slack。他也認為，管理這些通信渠道非常棘手。 他說道：“有時候，我會收到Facebook上發來的消息，但他們有時候也會給我發送LinkedIn消息。”問題是，何為最好的應對之策？ 他指出，目前的情況與即時通信應用的鼎盛時期類似，當時AOL、Yahoo Messenger和MSN Messenger為爭奪精神份額和市場份額而展開激烈競爭。幾乎每個人都有多個賬號，所有人不得不依靠另外一款應用Trillian來管理所有這些不同的賬號。 BetterCloud公司首席執行官戴維·波利蒂斯認為，現在的問題是，最新出現的各種即時通信工具，無法組合在一起。來自紐約的BetterCloud公司旨在幫助客戶使用和管理云應用。 諷刺的是，BetterCloud公司自身也曾面臨過類似的挑戰。 他說道：“盡管公司只有150人，但我們使用過Hipchat、Hangouts、Skype企業版和Slack。我們不得不做出決定，否則數據歸檔將面臨嚴重問題?！弊罱K，公司將Slack作為內部用戶的標準通信應用，將Google Hangouts用于外部通信。 他指出，沒有一款與Trillian類似的產品，可以整合目前的即時聊天應用，因為這些應用均較為封閉，無法與其他應用整合。例如，他表示，你無法將Slack整合到Google Hangouts當中。 最新消息：與往常類似，這篇文章發表之后，有一家名為Sameroom.io的公司宣稱，其應用可以連接不同的即時通信技術。 因此，目前的問題之一是，各種應用之間的整合性不足。其次，來自各種應用的嘈雜提示音，使得原本有用的工具變得格外令人分心。那么問題來了：這些工具的新功能，是否比噪聲更重要？ 波利蒂斯說道：“我認為這一切都是在做無用功?！保ㄘ敻恢形木W） 譯者：Mr. 審校：任文科 ? |
For many people who work in distributed organizations—and often from home offices—real-time messaging applications such as Slack, Jive JIVE -2.54% , and Yammer, et al., are vital lifelines. But few people stop with those. News junkies rely on Twitter as their de facto news feed as well as a conduit for seeking out quotes and expertise on the fly. So, it was interesting to read new research by BetterCloud finding that 57% of big companies surveyed use two or more real-time messaging products. But more surprisingly, 20% of those big shops use five (five!) or more of these applications. That seemed a stunning number—until I thought about my own personal use of such tools. At work, our editorial team essentially lives on Slack. But on a personal level, things fragment fast. For certain contacts, Google GOOG -0.21% Chat or Hangouts are the communications channels of choice. For podcasting buddies, Microsoft’s MSFT -0.78% Skype is the go-to choice. Then there is, as mentioned, Twitter TWTR 0.26% , which makes for five messaging apps for me alone. But wait, there’s more! There are some long-time friends and sources who prefer to communicate via Facebook FB -1.09% messaging, and for other business contacts, LinkedIn LNKD 1.98% messages are still important. That brings the count to seven. And, to be honest, if Apple AAPL 1.50% hadn’t dropped support for it, I’d still be on AOL Instant Messenger, the great granddaddy of this type of product. (In theory, you can access AOL IM via iChat, but it’s too painful to keep up.) Gleb Budman, chief executive of Backblaze, shares the pain of over-connectedness. He also has contacts on Google Chat and Hangouts, LinkedIn, and Facebook—and pretty much uses whatever channel is most appropriate for that person. As a company, Backblaze tried out Sqwiggle, a presence-based instant chat application for a bit before switching to its current platform, Slack. He agrees managing all those channels is a handful. “Sometimes I’ll get a message from someone on Facebook, and they’ll send me a LinkedIn message as well.” he said. The problem then becomes, what is the best way to respond? This, he notes, is a throwback to the heyday of instant messaging when AOL AOL 0.00% , Yahoo YHOO 2.34% Messenger, and MSN Messenger were all duking it out for mind- and market-share. Almost everyone ended up with multiple accounts and then had to resort to yet another application, Trillian, to manage all those multiple accounts in one place. The problem now is that the latest flock of real-time tools cannot be knit together, said David Politis, chief executive of BetterCloud, a New York-based company that helps customers use and manage their cloud applications. Ironically, BetterCloud had its own challenges there. “We used Hipchat, Hangouts, Skype for Business, and Slack, and we were just 150 people. We had to make some decisions or we’d have problems with archiving,” he noted. The company ended up standardizing on Slack for internal users but uses Google Hangouts for external interactions. Alas, he points out, there is no Trillian equivalent for today’s instant chat applications because none of them are particularly open and receptive to integrating with the others. You can’t tie Slack, for example into Google Hangouts, he said. Update: As is often the case, once this story posted, a company, Sameroom.io, asserted that it can connect different real-time technologies. So one problem is the lack of integration for diverse applications. The other is the sheer cacophony of all those inputs, which turns useful tools into a distraction. The question, then, is: Does the new utility of the tools outweigh the noise? “I think it’s a wash,” Politis said. |
