It has been called in these pages a competitor to Microsoft Outlook, even though Do.com is not an e-mail client. It warrants the comparison is because it could potentially deliver collaboration and connectivity on a scale that Outlook has been trying to reach for well over a decade, by pairing itself with Google’s Gmail.
This morning, Salesforce.com cut the virtual ribbons on Do.com, ending its beta program and accepting new applicants.
Charter applicants for Do.com service will not be charged, though a customer service FAQ posted by Salesforce partner Assistlyusing Saleforce partner Assistly’s platform indicates that zero may not always be the price for all services. In an interview last month with RWW, Salesforce executives indicated that the company could decide at some point to offer a premium version of the service (analogous to LinkedIn’s business model), and did not rule out the possibility of such a service including bridges to Salesforce’s existing business platforms, including the Chatter communications link and the Data.com service.
For one of the service’s more innovative feats, an Do.com tutorial page demonstrates how an individual can automatically convert an assignment e-mailed to him and read with any client (in the demonstration, Windows Live Hotmail), into an actionable task by forwarding it to [email protected], or into a usable note by forwarding it to [email protected]. Do.com associates it with the user by way of the sending e-mail address, which must be the same one associated with the Do.com account.
For now, Do.com is accessible through IE8, Chrome 12, Safari 5, Firefox 4, and higher (no mention of Opera yet). In a set of tweets earlier today, the company acknowledged that it has its tablet-friendly Web app (HTML5) in working order, along with its iPhone app, although an Android app is still forthcoming. It also admitted that developers are working to integrate Dropbox functionality.
In its first professionally produced video ad, the company paints a picture of everyday kids (or at least, kids you’d expect to find profiled in “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”) using Do.com to out-organize and out-perform other kids. The losing candidate in Do.com’s ad is depicted as an e-mail user.
