The online world is moving toward super simple sites. I guess that’s not surprising given the clutter. It’s no wonder that sites with super simple sign-up processes take off, at least in the short term. But sometimes, that’s all you need – people in the door to start helping you tweak the product.
Yammer was named the winner of the TechCrunch 50, which was a significant reason for the surge in sign-ups. But Yammer was smart to make the sign-in process super simple as to not lose anyone coming in the door this week. I don’t know the other companies participating, so I can’t say the company did or didn’t deserve the top prize. And, I wouldn’t have been compelled to test it out if it were not doing what it is doing, which is being an internal Twitter for corporations.
Basically, it’s micro-blogging what you’re doing at work. It’s so Twitter-esque, it even looks like an exact clone, which raises the question about how closely one can mimic another company”s service?
It’s a nice compliment to Twitter, even though Jack Dorsey has told me that he thinks Twitter’s UI could use some improvement.
The smart business model is also what makes this company one to watch. Basically, if enough employees within a corporation join a network, a company’s human resources, or whomever is assigned Big Brother in an organization, may want to take it over to keep the peace inside the corporate walls. Or more likely, to make sure people are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. For this ability, a company will have to pay. It’s unclear how much a company will pay, however.
So, here’s the super simple sign-up process.
After that, you get an email to activate your account. Since it’s not Gmail, or another Web service, Yammer cannot easily authenticate you so you have to go back to your inbox and activate your account. Once you click the link in your email, you have to finish the process. Once again, it’s super simple.
As you can see, you’re just asked for your full name, job title and password. The next step is to invite your colleagues. And, it does make sense to invite them because after all, this service doesn’t make much sense if you’re all alone Yammering to yourself.
According to TechCrunch, the service saw 10,000 people sign up in one day. Now, that’s pretty fast adoption.
