Metavibes

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Zimbra - Blog - Ajax sweet spots  is a good analysis by zimbra people; I specifically liked the following listing of how to supercharge email experience with ajax interfaces (+mashups etc.)




With Ajax-based messaging, arbitrary email content can be made live by linking it with web content and services on intranets or the Internet. No more cutting and pasting from email to browser. Mousing over actionable content gives the user a real-time preview (subject to security constraints) that can be factored in decision making:

• Mouse-over a date or time, and see what is in your calendar;

• Mouse-over a phone number, and see what is in your address book;

• Mouse-over a physical address, and see a map or even driving directions and estimated arrival time;

• Mouse-over a flight, and see whether or not it is on time;

• Mouse-over a customer email address or case tracking number, and see its status;

• Mouse-over an equity to get a quote;

• Mouse-over a part number to check inventory;

• Mouse-over an Internet order, and see its shipping status; and so on.


With Ajax-based messaging, email content can also be fully actionable:

• Right click on a phone number to make a call with your soft-phone (such as via Skype or a Cisco VoIP phone);

• Right click on a date to schedule a meeting;

• Right click on a name, address, or phone number to update your address book;

• Right click on an airline reservation to print your boarding pass;

• Right click on an equity to trade;

• Right click on a part number to place an order for more inventory;

• Right click on a purchase order, provisioning request, or other internal workflow request to approve or reject it; and so on again.


Now, only if we had fully open way of doing these things. The very first thing I envisage is to create a widget that can display single MIME email. Hopefully we will have it sometime.

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