And the major disappointment that is Disqus

This is part three of a new series on “Rise of a startup: Cruiseable.” Today’s installment looks at how we’re using Glip and Disqus. Also see:

• Part 1: Great tech startups begin with a great development team
• Part 2: Followerwonk: A powerful tool to up your Twitter game

Target audience: Entrepreneurs, startup teams, angel investors, venture capitalists, developers, businesses, innovators, educators, students, journalists, travel analysts.

For months, we’ve been hacking our way through the launch of the Cruiseable website and mobile app by relying on a frankly random collection of collaboration tools, including Dropbox, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Sites, Google Groups, Google Hangouts, Skype, Basecamp, Asana and Trello.

It’s a small miracle we managed to launch with a beautiful-looking site despite the mishmosh of tools that resembles a five-car pileup on I-80.

But now we’ve hit upon an integrated tool that brings order to the chaos: Glip.

It’s the coolest project management tool that you’ve never heard of. And we’re a startup, so we don’t have a big budget for this stuff. We’re paying $5 per team member per month for 10 staffers, which isn’t nothing — but it’s well worth the investment.

A screenshot of Cruiseable’s Glip account.

Glip is one part communications platform, one part task management tool and one part resource clearinghouse. Up until a month ago we still had team members and contractors emailing each other on their personal accounts (and I’d wince at every hotmail and aol email address) and we’d wonder why our correspondence would get lost or go unanswered.

Now, Glip tracks every written communication you’ve had with each colleague, either one one one, or as part of a Team (Cruiseable General, Growth hacking, Marcom, Business Development) or an ad hoc group that you set up with specific individuals. It’s like an archived Skype chat, only friendlier and more versatile.

You can set tasks for people to carry out (or to ignore — but at least there’s a record!). You can create a resource database by adding relevant Notes. You can add other documents in other formats to a nearly bottomless directory of Files.

Business video chat at an affordable price

The coolest feature, though, is the one that still needs some work: video chats. We switched from Skype (which kept crashing with six or more participants) to Google Hangouts (which has always had shitty resolution and maxed us out at 10) to Glip and were stunned at the fidelity of the video. WOW! The videocam images really pop, at least for those of us with modern laptops.

You can invite outsiders into your circle, which we’ve done, to good effect. And you can share your screen. (Goodbye, overpriced GoToMeeting and fussy JoinMe.)

On the downside, Glip still needs some work. Its video chat feature appears powered by a third party, Zoom.us, and every time I start a video chat, it prompts me to download the zoom.us app. [Note: Glip has now partnered with RingCentral.] And Glip’s Twitter presence is pretty much nonexistent.

Glip has integrations with Dropbox, Box, Evernote, Google Drive and Hangouts, which we have yet to explore. All in all, it’s genius. For an agile startup like Cruiseable, this is just what we needed. Thank you, Glipsters!

Disqus: We’re using it, but we’re not happy about it

Our mantra at Cruiseable is, build where we need to and borrow where it’s good enough.

Any modern startup has to offer customers and users a voice on your site or platform. So we needed a conversation solution that wasn’t a bulletin board.

I’ve long been disappointed by the dismal state of comment plug-ins. Intense Debate wasn’t an option; we built our own CMS instead of using WordPress. We’ve heard good and bad things (but mostly bad) about Livefyre. Facebook Comments was tempting, but it lacked the ability to integrate with our users’ avatars/icons. There are others out there, but none seemed particularly robust.

So we went with dull and serviceable but reliable Disqus.

What we didn’t realize is how utterly unconfigurable it is.

Want to increase the tiny font size, which was clearly engineered by 20somethings and not for an audience of 40- to 70-year-olds? You can’t.

Want to add color to the bland gray color scheme? Want to link to the user’s profile page on your site instead of to her previous comments on Disqus? Want to say ADD IMAGE instead of relying on the teeny tiny hidden-away image icon? Want to add a Flag link at the bottom of a comments on your site? Can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t.

Disappointing would be an understatement for a product from a company founded in 2007.

The discussion industry, such as it is, needs a serious kick in the ass.

The post Glip: A dazzling new project management tool appeared first on Inside Social Media.

Here is a list of some of the top-rated sites for helping you achieve some of the resolutions most often made: weight loss, healthier living, quitting smoking, philanthropy, and better money and time management. And if you don’t have a resolution yet, perhaps this list can help you find a worthy one!

Inclusion in this list is based on how well a tool is rated in common review sites and the cost of a tool’s service. Reasonably priced services and sites that offer a free version were more likely to make the list, as were sites that offer some sort of collaboration or interactivity when applicable.

Weight loss & fitness

beYOU.tvoffers fitness and wellness videos ranging from yoga to boot camp, pilates to meditation. Videos may be watched for free with advertising or purchased and downloaded.

BodyDaemon is a free lifestyle monitoring tool that allows members to record their workouts, food, body, goals, injuries and lots more. Share as much or as little information as you like. Members can update their journal via the Website, your Facebook application or mobile phone.

Extrapounds is a free online weight loss community that provides you with weight loss tools to help you stick to your diet plans. It is where Extrapounds members share their experiences and support one another on their journeys to becoming weight loss success stories.

Fitness Journal is designed to enhance any diet or exercise program. They do not tell you what to eat or how to workout. Fitness Journal allows you an easy, interactive way to manage your workout and diet information. Their software will help you focus on the end result, and motivate you to keep moving in the right direction.

ProjectWeightLoss is an online community of users looking to achieve a healthier lifestyle. It offers tools to help you count your calories, decide on a diet program and a fitness program, and evaluate where you stand weight-wise. Plus, you’ll be in contact with a lot of like-minded people.

SparkPeople’s mission is to SPARK millions of PEOPLE to reach their goals and lead healthier lives. They offer nutrition, health, and fitness tools; support; and resources that are free. Their weight loss program teaches people to stop dieting and transition to a permanent, healthy lifestyle.

Thintopia is an online community with the purpose of helping each member reach his/her weight loss goals. They are dedicated to providing services the community needs to motivate, inspire, and educate each other. The main service they provide is free weight loss competitions.

Traineo’s mission is to create the most effective health and fitness community on the Web by combining the latest software technology with sound information and services from the world’s leading health and fitness experts. Traineo is the culmination of over six years of development, testing, and focus group studies in partnership with leading experts in weight loss, health, sports, and fitness.

Healthy & sustainable living

Fivelimes is an entirely user-generated community that acts as your independent resource for information on the latest eco-friendly and socially responsible products and services. Our mission is to make the job of finding, discussing, comparing, and shopping for green products and services around the world extremely easy. The more people acting together, the greater our impact will be.

Green Map System energizes a diverse global movement of local map-making teams charting their community’s natural, cultural, and green living resources with universal icons and adaptable multi-lingual resources. Explore hundreds of perspective-changing Green Maps created by local Map teams in 50 countries.

Browse through LIME for healthy living resources. Read about healthy food, health, and balance. Meet new people and view the top topics. Access the food section for recipes, food videos, food features, and news feeds.

rVita leverages Web 2.0 by bringing the power of mash ups, user-generated content, and community to the integrative medicine world. The site’s key features include reputed content about integrative therapies, a trusted practitioner network so you can find the best provider near you, and valuable feedback from other consumers and experts about what remedies really worked for them.

Quitting smoking

The iPhone application My QuitLine puts you in touch with free expert advice to help you quit smoking. This application connects you—by phone or by live help—with a trained quit smoking counselor at the National Cancer Institute Quitline.

QuitMeter is a countdown and tracking widget that you can save to your desktop or embed on other social sites like Facebook or Friendster. It helps you keep track of how many cigarettes you have not smoked and how much money you have saved—in real time.

Qwitter is a social tool designed to help you quit smoking. Quitter is the Web 2.0 way to quit smoking. It’s a social tool supported by Twitter, so you can have your whole Twitter entourage and the Twitter community at large help you quit smoking.

Philanthropy

Better The World is a platform that will let anybody support any cause he finds worthwhile just by browsing the Web. Users download a sidebar that will be employed to display relevant ads while they are surfing the Web. Charities spanning the whole world have partnered with the company in order to give users everywhere many options to choose from.

Care2 provides powerful tools to make a difference in your life, your community, and the world. The Website is driven by passionate people (like you) who want to restore the world’s balance. They’re committed to using the power of business to make a positive social and earth-friendly impact on the world.

Do Something believes you have the power to make a difference. Their aim is to inspire, support, and celebrate a generation of doers: people who see the need to do something, believe in their ability to get it done, and then take action. They provide the tools and resources for you to convert your ideas and energy into positive action.

The mission of YourCause is to empower individuals to change our world—leveraging their own voices, networks, and spheres of influence to improve the lives of others. The dedicated and accomplished YourCause team is committed to supporting and facilitating the efforts of a caring member community and the causes they champion so passionately.

Money, finances & debt management

Geezeo offers personal finance money management tools to consumers for free, but they also have what they call a “community of motivators” where you can ask and answer financial questions in a forum setting.

Green Sherpa looks like a budgeting solution but is really a quality of life upgrade. View your money data in a cash flow format for powerful and transparent financial tracking, forecasting, and financial reporting. You also can invite a team to help you: Green Sherpa enables users to collaborate with financial partners, personal or professional, in order to make better financial decisions.

Moneytrackin’ is a free online Web application that allows you to track all your expenses and income easily and without effort, thus allowing you to have a clear view of your financial situation. Their users build saving collective knowledge by sharing both global and local tips. These tips can be discussed by the community itself using comments.

Wesabe offers the same expense tracking and budget management features as other personal financial management tools, but they also offer a way for people to share their experience and benefit from the lessons of others.

Time management & productivity

From Basecamp: For years project management software was about charts, graphs, and stats. And you know what? It didn’t work. Pictures and numbers don’t get projects done. Basecamp tackles project management from an entirely different angle: A focus on communication and collaboration. Basecamp brings people together.

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave (logo at right) can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. It’s still invitation-only to use the app but you can likely easily find a friend who has an invite.

Google Apps is a Web-based hosted solution, which means you can access Google Apps at any time, anywhere you have an Internet connection and store your content right on their servers. You might hear this type of technology referred to as “software-as-a-service” or “cloud computing.” Applications offered include Gmail for business, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Groups, Google Sites, and Google Video.

From NowDoThis: how do you organize your day? A calendar requires you to predict the unpredictable. A to-do list can overwhelm you with data. I wanted a “boss” to tell me what to do. Enjoy this free tool.

RescueTime is a Web-based time-management tool that allows you to easily understand how you spend your time. Your time gets tracked down to the second without you having to actively track it. Instantly know how much time you’re spending on a particular application (like “Microsoft Word”), site (like “Google.com”) or a category (like “Communication”).

Teamwork Project Manager is an easy-to-use online teamwork and project management software application that helps managers, staff, and clients work together more productively online.

So there you have it. No excuses my real-time friend. Make your new year Web 2.0 accomplished!

The post Top Web 2.0 tools to help with your New Year’s resolutions appeared first on Inside Social Media.