Jott & Pinger - like Kibbles-n-bits, but different...

Okay,  I spend a big chunk of my life trying to "organize" myself and make myself more efficient.  Yes, I admit it that I am a sucker for anything that claims it can simplify my life through the magic of technology. I will typically give things a look and quickly decide if its good or bad.  My brain is always completely full so unless it looks REALLY simple, and see immediate value and company I can trust, I simply move on.  Recently I stumbled upon a new service that is sure to make its way into my daily life.

While I have described some nifty tools like Plazes, organizers like Basecamp, and other services I use, this one is totally different.  The service is called Jott, it's freshly released to the public, and it's about to become something I use every day.

Here's what it does in a nutshell...

• I call a toll free number Jott provides
• I tell it who i want to "Jott" (myself, my team, anyone)
• I leave a message
• I hang up

In the background, via the magic of the world-wide-web, Jott takes my message and instruction, converts it to SMS and/or an email message, and immediately delivers it to whatever individual or group I specified.  They all get a clean little message, at the same time, and they are able to reply, listen to my original voice message, or simply take my nuggets of wisdom and use it for good (not evil).

Where does this fit?
Jott fits someplace between email, voice mail, and phone.  So much of my day is spent returning emails (or not) that could just as easily been handled via SMS or a simple yes/no.  Jott allows 1-way communication to multiple people in a flash.  For instance:

• I am often "running a little late" and Jott allows me to notify people I am meeting with that I am en route.
• I think a lot on planes, and it is incredibly convenient for me to be able to fire out some to-do lists to my assistant or to one of my team members in a rapid fashion (vs. feverishly ticking my Treo keys till my carpel tunnel syndrome flares up).
• I spend a lot of time in the car and Jott allows me to not text-and-drive (like I do sooooo often) but still get a message out.
• It is convenient if I know someone is in a meeting and I need to get them a message without ringing their phone.
• It is convenient communicating a message to my entire staff, or contacts on a project team, etc.

There are so many uses for this, I could go on and on.  Jott is actually REALLY powerful, yet INCREDIBLY simple.

How much you ask?
For now, Jott is free...though I suppose at some point they will need to sort out how to make some money.  For now, jump on the gravy train.

When i did a little snooping, I found there are competitors in this space.  One of which was called Pinger. Pinger is similar, but seems a little more focused on leaving voice mail messages across carriers.  I don't know, i didn't really get into it.  Give their site a look though too.  They spent some time on their clever Flash animations (so did Jott - but with a little less humor) that demonstrate 3 real-life uses for their tool.  Still though, I didn't feel as compelled to formally try their service.  Jott got my business first.  I guess I was just sold on the pretty face that Jott laid out for me...lets say they had me at H E L L O.

Well, there's some more services to try.  I think they're interesting and useful.  If you don't, you may just be better organized than I am to begin with. 

WBV