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WizeHive, a currently free online collaboration tool that lets users share notes, ideas, files and other content to manage projects, has gotten a new look and a number of other changes.
The software boosts the number of files that can be uploaded at one time from one to 50, and the maximum uploaded file size is now 100 MB.
Along with a better user interface designed to help users manage and track files more easily, these enhancements are geared to help WizeHive achieve scale as it seeks adoption against Google Apps, Central Desktop, Liquid Planner and other tools in the enterprise market.
WizeHive CEO Mike Levinson told eWEEK the software runs in the browser, accessible through PCs or mobile phones, but is also available in a small, customizable desktop client.
WizeHive groups work activities into online workspaces where users can share information about projects with a set group of people, and create separate workspaces for colleagues family and friends.
See pictures of WizeHive on Flickr here.
Like Yammer, Present.ly and other business-oriented services of its ilk, WizeHive employs a real-time data feed so users can see updates in chronological order. Notes in the workspace include text, URL links, images, and files, and these are easily exchanged via e-mail systems. Information stored in workspaces may also be categorized into Web pages.
To press the real-time allure of WizeHive, the company recently applied Twitter’s API to let users create tasks and notes for their workspaces from their Twitter accounts, or pull WizeHive content into their Twitter accounts.
Direct messages sent to WizeHive through Twitter instantly update workspaces with the new information, and workspace collaborators receive e-mail notification of content that’s been shared and can reply to the message from Twitter without having to log-in to WizeHive.
What really separates WizeHive from the pack for now is an integrated task, or to-do list, which blows the one in Google’s Gmail out of the water. Within each workspace, users can manage their own task lists or those of others, including setting priorities and due dates. Users can then reply to other collaborators to discuss tasks and projects.
When you’re tired of viewing content at the workspace level, you can zoom out and view an integrated screen that shows all of the activity from all of the workspaces.
These features make it an attractive alternative to Basecamp, Liquid Planner and other project management tools, as well as collaboration software suites such as Google Apps and others in that competitive field.
Why did Levinson launch WizeHive with a raft of other online collaboration products to choose from in the market?
After trying wiki tools and Google Docs and finding nothing that quite fit the bill for his project management planning designs, he launched the tool in December 2008 to better manage content and projects among colleagues.
Levinson hopes to take WizeHive out of beta soon and is considering pricing schemes in the “freemium” vein, bolting additional functionality onto the free tool for fees. WizeHive may also make money by serving ads within the software in the future.