Two interesting Domino webmail alternatives

January 7 2008

In the last few days, I've been contacted by a couple of different European business partners about new Domino products they've created in the webmail space.  It's very interesting to learn about market demand for different approaches to web-based mail/calendar for Domino users.


The first is IT Room-- www.itroom.fr .  Initially in French, they have built a very dynamic web UI for Domino mail.  Their calendar interface, for example, includes drag-and-drop ability to move appointments.  The same in mail -- drag-and-drop to folders.

IT Room has posted a video of their solution on YouTube:


Version Française: youtube.com/watch?v=difTJIT3Cz4


The second comes from Link It in Italy.  They have built a Google Mail-like user interface for Domino web mail.  You can access this on the LinkIT website.

Here's one screen shot, showing the inbox:

Image:Two interesting Domino webmail alternatives
You can try this one out yourself by going to wlm.linkgroup.it/mail/wlmtest.nsf and clicking Image:Two interesting Domino webmail alternatives

These are pretty cool.  What I am interested to see is how this develops -- along with the light mode for Domino Web Access coming in 8.0.1.  Lots of rapid evolution in the Domino web mail space!

Ed Brill Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Notes and Domino 8  Add/View Comments [14]

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  1. 1  Bruce Elgort http://ideajam.net | 1/7/2008 3:06:00 PM

    Very nice alternatives to Domino Web Access. This shows how flexible Domino can be. I hope we see more and more great Domino apps - yes I said "Domino".

  1. 2  Lars Olufsen http://www.olufsphere.com | 1/8/2008 3:49:38 AM

    Both apps are brilliant. And while they might be simpler than DWA, they definately hit a shortcut regarding usability and the needs of most users.

    Also, it is going to be interesting to see how much Web 2.0 will move into the "traditional" Domino apps space (as opposed to the composite apps space).

  1. 3  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 1/8/2008 4:02:59 AM

    Very interesting applications. The second one however begs the question why you would want a GMail immitation instead of the real thing.

  1. 4  Hubertus Amann  | 1/8/2008 5:08:33 AM

    @Volker - the second one is not a copy of GMail. It may look like but has the advantage of being an internal mail account. Sorry, GMail may be fine for you and my private mail but not as a company mail system. The real thing in this case is Notes :-)

  1. 5  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 1/8/2008 8:02:13 AM

    Hubertus, "internal" mail systems can (are being) outsourced.

  1. 6  Ben Rose  | 1/8/2008 8:49:50 AM

    Volker,

    Outsourced Gmail system can't link to your existing internal Notes workflow applications.

    This would potentially allow companies who extensively use Notes as more than an email client to have a simple web front end for people out of the office to stay in touch.

  1. 7  Roberto Boccadoro  | 1/8/2008 9:08:32 AM

    Th Italian BP has added some infos on how his solution is built, in English :-)

    { Link }

  1. 8  Joerg Michael http://www.jmichael.eu | 1/8/2008 9:19:37 AM

    Sure, some organizations outsource their mail systems. Many others, however, would not even consider the idea.

  1. 9  Danny Lawrence  | 1/8/2008 9:29:53 AM

    The "Gmail clone" is an interesting hack from the perspective that there are probably a lot more people who use Gmail as their personal e-mail than use lookOut, so the "everyone uses lookOut at home so you should use Exchanged/lookOut at the office" argument becomes a little less valid.

  1. 10  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 1/8/2008 9:45:47 AM

    Isn't gmail still in beta, three years later, anyway?

  1. 11  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 1/8/2008 10:26:44 AM

    Ben, why can't it link to your Notes workflow application? Ben L may be able to assist you with turning doclinks into Notes URLs or hrefs.

    Joerg, that is correct. If you assume that SaaS is a concept gaining traction, many more will.

    Ed, some call it beta, some call it maintenance release. ;-)

  1. 12  tom http://www.codepress.net/b | 1/8/2008 2:01:25 PM

    @10

    Personal Google mail might still be in beta but Google Apps email is in production.

    I wonder if Google Apps is affecting Lotus Notes in the Small Business Market?

  1. 13  Marky Goldstein http://www.rosa.com | 1/12/2008 4:48:24 AM

    Indeed, our employees and Domino users request Gmail... or Gmail style Web Interface from Domino... that's the benchmark. Gmail shows how good web engineers Google is employing. Lotus: wake up! and become young again...

  1. 14  Rob McDonagh http://www.CaptainOblivious.com | 1/13/2008 1:06:49 PM

    FYI, for those wondering who outsources to Google for email, in light of the security and/or compliance risks, read this:

    { Link }

    Apparently, the law firm in question feels that Google's acquisition of Postini solves the compliance question. I'm personally very surprised to hear that, but I'll say this - law firms are NOT risk-taking, cutting edge technology shops, and they're VERY well aware of legal and compliance issues, so if lawyers are choosing Google Apps, IBM and MS should take notice.

    via: { Link }