Web Conferencing Tool

In the early days of the Internet, web conferencing tools consist of a computer software application that allowed participants to post text messages. Today, web conferencing has managed to evolve from mere text messages to something that encompasses all types of media, including audio, screen caps, video, or a combination of all or either. However, despite the growing need for more web conferencing tools which corporations and businesses claim to have, the technology itself is still, for the most part, at its early stages. For this reason, some of the industry assessments and expectations about web conferencing tools may be off the mark by quite a bit.

“Typical live Web interaction technologies include chat, instant messaging (IM), video voice (both voice over IP [VoIP] and initiation of PSTN callback), co-browsing, application sharing, and remote control,” Timothy Hickernell reports for ZDNet.

But it should be noted that these features aren’t the only ones that are being accepted into many mainstream web conferencing tools. For all it’s worth, web conferencing tools are still far from hitting its full potential and as such, much like the Internet, it is continuously evolving. Here are some of the features and facilities that can be found in a few web conferencing tools:

* Session recording
* Polling
* Feedback facilities
* Live annotation and markup
* PowerPoint presentation facilities
* File sharing/broadcasting
* Multimedia playback
* Event management

Of course, these aren’t all the features of web conferencing tools. It seems the list could go on and on, considering the rate with which the technology is developing.

Web Conferencing Tool: Text Chat

Online text chat was once considered a darling of the “eCRM” craze but its sluggish growth could be attributed to its inefficacy and inability to satisfy inflated expectations in terms of conveying information and human factors (e.g., emotions, buying mood, satisfaction). Nevertheless, text chat is here to stay and has been incorporated as a basic feature of the web conferencing tool. Though not very useful for deep discussion and exchanges between a group, text chat can provide complimentary communication tool that details spelling of items, URLs, names of files, technical specs, addresses, or specific step-by-step procedures.

Web Conferencing Tool: Co-Browsing

Basically, co-browsing refers to the ability of an individual to control the web browser of another individual. It is often used with customers when guiding them through generally available web content (e.g., product information), assisting them with online transaction (e.g., enrollments or orders), and pushing unique content to his or her computer through the browser (e.g., multimedia demonstrations).