Thanks for checking it out. We have a search feature under development. I agree that search is key for this type of tool.
I'd be interested to hear what you use the desktop client for. We have been thinking of creating one simply for DM alerts, but do you find it useful beyond that? It's a shame that browsers can't do notifications.
Also, could you elaborate on why chat rooms make more sense for larger companies than for a startup? The real-time conversation aspect has just be so useful for us, especially since we're a distributed team.
The desktop client just integrates really well with my workflow. When I have to move from one app to the browser and open up a new tab it takes me out of my current mode of operation. It's a subtle nuance in liking the desktop client better than the browser but I think it's important. You also contend with other distractions in the browser. All hell breaks loose when I see my bookmarks to HN, Reddit, Facebook, etc. and there goes my productivity...
For our company, with just a couple of founders, chat rooms wouldn't make sense because we want everyone to know everything. We'd just have one master chat room. In Yammer, hashtags provide a similar feature to chat rooms, although all conversations are aggregated into one stream. I guess we could have separate chat rooms for checkins, bugs, etc. but now I'm flipping between tabs when I could have just tagged by comment with the right hashtag.
I see what you mean now. Multiple rooms are definitely overkill for just a few people. The three of us also just use one room right now. However, my last startup grew to about 30 people, and at that point, multiple rooms were a necessity. We've tried to make it easy to switch tabs using keyboard shortcuts and indicate activity in other rooms by highlighting the tabs.
Sounds like we should consider increasing the priority of the desktop client. Thanks for all the great feedback.
I'd be interested to hear what you use the desktop client for. We have been thinking of creating one simply for DM alerts, but do you find it useful beyond that? It's a shame that browsers can't do notifications.
Also, could you elaborate on why chat rooms make more sense for larger companies than for a startup? The real-time conversation aspect has just be so useful for us, especially since we're a distributed team.