Adobe's ConnectNow Steps Up Meetings

You've probably experienced the "joys" of holding a business meeting when half of your office is somewhere else. Fortunately, there are Web conferencing services that can make these meetings more productive.

These tools enable users to share documents, chat and use video. They ensure that you and your team are on -- and looking at -- the same page. WebEx Communicationsand GoToMeeting are the big names in this business, but Dimdim, Yuuguu and ReadyTalk are also worth a look.

Adobe Systems(ADBE Quote) has been making waves with its Web-based confab product, ConnectNow, which is part of its Acrobat.com line of online office tools. The company offers free accounts for groups of no more than three people and premium subscriptions that cost up to $39 a month, which includes unlimited downloads and posting for 20-person meetings.

About a half dozen of us here in my digital world have been testing ConnectNow for the past few weeks. So far, it's making the grade.

What you get: A powerful, flexible meeting tool at a nice price.

Like Adobe's Flash and Photoshop, the Web-conferencing service is meticulously coded and easy to use once you get the hang of it.

To get started, simply surf over to Acrobat.com and create a free account. ConnectNow gives you a Web address that you can customize and forward to your participants. And voila: Three of you can hold a decent meeting for nothing. Users can share documents, chat, share Web-cam feeds and, if you desire, access the host's desktop. More folks and features push fees higher.