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Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Haystack Takes On Upcoming Microsoft "Istanbul"
Yesterday we covered a new announcement from Microsoft that said it was going to release a new client product code-named "Istanbul" that would combine instant messaging, email, VoIP and WebEx style conferencing into one mega application.

Turns out (thanks to a smart Alice and Bill reader who tipped us off) that there is already a product out there from MIT that is available now to try. "Haystack" is dubbed a "Universal Information Client" or what we like to call IM on steroids and it looks like we have ourselves a new software category.

Here's what the Haystack gang has to say: "Haystack is a tool designed to let every individual manage all of their information in the way that makes the most sense to them. By removing the arbitrary barriers created by applications only handling certain information "types", and recording only a fixed set of relationships defined by the developer, we aim to let users define whichever arrangements of, connections between, and views of information they find most effective. Such personalization of information management will dramatically improve each individual's ability to find what they need when they need it."

Now here's what we have to say: What's the big deal about using MSN Messenger and/or AIM and then opening your email program and maybe firing up a browser and logging into Webex? Isn't that point of Windows - that you can open and use many different things at once and they all work in your desktop environment? Is that so wrong? A giant Uber-App sounds like a nightmare to me. A lot of so-so features all trying to be everything to everyone. What do you think?

--Alice and Bill On Microsoft's "Istanbul" (including where Alice riles the Turkish community by accident)
--Haystack's Website
--More on Microsoft's Announcement
# Permalink Posted at 1:15 PM 5 comments Email this Link

Comments on this Item:

Last time I tried using Haystack it used up all the resources on my machine and then it died.

I think the point is the ability to keep all contact lists and correspondence in one program for the enterprise so it is easily searched and easily archived.

I personally just want the google desktop tool to be able to open up and index every type of document on my machine: office docs, Tbird mboxes, pdf, ps, txt, html. Basically anything I can save a file as.

# posted by James Eyrich 12:53 PM

Good point. Wonder if Google will get in on the act? Seems like a lame duck category to me.

# posted by Alice 1:08 PM

Sounds like ICQ all over again. Start off as a cool app with a focus, and slowly meltdown into a bloatware application that tries to be everything to everyone (IE anyone?).

# posted by rick 1:57 PM

Typically the best software is the software that does one thing and does it well. So I'm not going to rush right out and try Haystack.

At a higher level I think they're approaching this the wrong way. Rather than dumping everything into one big "haystack" and letting the user sort through it, it makes more sense to let objects retain their uniqueness and have specific software packages access them as needed. For example, take a personal contact data item. It'd be great if I could manage one list of contacts for my e-mail and various IM clients. If we just stored objects like contacts in standard ways, then all sorts of programs could take advantage of my contact list for their own needs. There are other examples as well, of course, like email. There's lots of good info in email archives, but generally they are only accessible through your mail client. That's beginning to change, but slowly.

# posted by jallison 12:51 PM

Comment the first (re Istanbul and Haystack): The Open Software Foundation also has an application, named Chandler, that will try to let users manage a pile of information in their own way.

Comment the second (re Uber Apps): Unix and Linux both are robust, successful, and relatively stable, because they rely on connections betweeen many small apps, not one large one. You can use scripts and the like to combine them any way you want. The advantage to a small program is, at least to a programmer, fairly obvious: less code means fewer bugs (not "no bugs" - there is no bug-free software, there are just some really subtle bugs).

# posted by Tim 8:03 PM

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