icon request

[prazim]

With the next version of X1 it would be lovely to have a jazzier, more dynamic icon to represent the program in my system tray. The current one seems to have been developed either based on a severely constrained budget, or by someone without a significant degree of creativity. Frankly, it doesn't fit in with everything else on my system tray. For example: Awasu, Start Up Faster, Replay AV, The Journal (DavdRM), APC, Comodo, among several others all have much nicer system tray icons. O apologize if I've hurt your feelings. I intend it to be helpful.
Thanks!
Sue

[Kenward]

Nice bit of light relief from the usual problem hunting. Maybe X1 should run a competition.

If nothing else, a new icon would let them boast that they have entered the Vista generation.

I would like an icon to be a bit more indicative of what is going on.

[w0qj]

Two and a half years ago, i've suggested to X1 that their X1 System Tray Icon can be animated, to show what's going on.

ie: VCR style buttons, to show:

-a "Play" button to show XEC is doing its regularly scheduled indexing,

-a "Pause" button if user had manually stopped XEC from indexing,

-right-click X1 System Tray Icon to "Manually Index Email Now"

-right-click X1 System Tray Icon to "Manually Index Files Now"

etc.

[prazim]

The animation would be awesome. It doesn't sound as if they are listening to their users though if you suggested this two and a half years ago! Perhaps they've taken a "pump and dump" type attitude with their product? Deploy it as much as possible and then let it rot?

[BillChapman]

Greg Dawes, does X1 have plans to tweak the interface to incorporate some the changes PGK and others have suggested over the years? If so, can you give us a rough time line (3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc.)? If not, why not?

[prazim]

I have contacted another very dynamic and brilliant developer and asked that they develop an indexing tool the succeeds where this one does, and excels where this one fails (I gave them a long list).

If they decide to move forward, I'll let you know. (They specifically ask their end users for ideas as to what to develop next.) They have been around for quite some time and are well established and known worldwide.

They have tools for both corporations (for a fee) and consumers (for free) so they are familiar with marketing strong, well designed tools for both environments.

Thanks for validating my reaction to the X1 icon. I've disabled X1 in start up at this point becuase I disdained looking at it. Also, it is quite heavy in terms of resource consumption. The next step will be a complete uninstall.

Marketing 101 - you can't displease end users and expect to hold on to corporate relationships for too long, as it's the people at the companies using one's products.

It's a shame about X1, it really is.

Sue

[Kenward]

A little bit of reading the history of X1 might be in order.

The idea that you can persuade some other organisation, or a lone codehead, to climb aboard the desktop search bandwagon just because you don't like the icon is deeply amusing. The field is already full of people trying to claim the same territory.

Microsoft and Google are just two of the minnows. When did you last see them responding to demands for cosmetic changes?

To recap a little of X1's history. It started as a paid for tool that could search everything on your PC. Then the rest of the pack arrive. Copernic is another one beyond the pair I have already mentioned.

Somewhere along the line, X1 decided to go for the corporate market and the desktop toy became a freebie. We lost a few features in the shift.

Maybe you should share your long list of the things you think need fixing in X1. Your first list had a few features that may, or may not, given that you have not responded to suggestions, be more in your lack of familiarity than with genuine shortcomings.

Did you also check to see how the three rivals that I have listed perform when it comes to your wish list?

By the way, disabling X1 in the start up doesn't just remove the offending eyesore. It screws up the way the software works.

As to "Marketing 101," correct in theory, but it misses out on a significant factor. The "corporate relationships" are all but invisible here. We don't get many queries from those folks. They are paying, and get the support they pay for. They even use a different product. How much did you pay for X1? Have you even looked at the "corporate" version?

[prazim]

Dear Kenward,
My response was to two different long time users who have confirmed that the folks at X1 aren't responding to their end users. Those who post on the board clearly take a deep interest in the product and invest their personal time and effort into making it the best one in the market. What benefits and is of interest to those contributing their ideas here, benefits long term the corporate relationship, for behind those corporate logos are individuals, as you know.

In my view, aside from the clear limitations of the product which inhibit its usefulness to me, the general design structure is the best I have used, and I have tried several. As it doesn't properly read Eudora mail status, I can't use it for that, and my PIM is Commence (they have quite a long list of multi billion dollar corporations as clients) not Outlook. I don't begrudge X1 from catering to those who use Microsoft desktop products, any sane business person would, considering their world dominance, however as Eudora is now owned by Mozilla, I expect you will want to be attentive to those users as well. Their starting point, as I understand it from Qualcomm, is the existing Eudora code.

It's unfortunate you are not getting more feedback from your corporate clients. As having been in the postion to evaluate and implement software and hardware across organizations, I have always had to make the decision in the best interest of the client, and at times that has meant migrating from one tool to another whose company and technology reflects responsvieness to their users.

I have posted a list of suggestions on this forum, but am not encouraged to spend more time doing so as other users have been clearly disregarded over such a protracted period of time.

From my perspective, these forums provide a wealth of information to the company on how to stay at the top in the eyes of their users.
Kind Regards,
Sue

[Kenward]

It's unfortunate you are not getting more feedback from your corporate clients.

I have no corporate clients. I tell a lie, I have quite a few. I get plenty of feedback thanks.

As to how much feedback they get at X1, I have no idea. I don't work for X1. All I said was that we do not get much feedback here. Maybe they think the product is just fine. Maybe they have other ways of letting X1 know what they need. After all, the corporate market is paying for the software. You too can sign up for paid support.

As to X1 ignoring stuff that comes up here, your evidence is one or two messages from people who tell you that they have suggested minor tweaks to the icon in the system tray and other areas. Lots of ideas have come up here from time to time. Some get taken up. Some get ignored.

The interesting thing is that the people who made those suggestions are still here, using X1 in their daily activities. They did not come storming in, find the thing wanting and then start acting like they paid a million dollars for the software and getting all huffy with it.

I'm afraid the fact that Commence "have quite a long list of multi billion dollar corporations as clients" does not guarantee a market for added software. However, if you are interested in buying X1 for a corporate environment, I think you can safely assume that the people who really do work for X1 will respond. As this is the first time that anyone has ever suggested using X1 with Commence, my guess, and it is no more than that, is that they haven't had much demand for a way to connect it to X1. If one of those billion dollar babies threw some of those spare greenbacks at X1, don't you think they'd jump?

If you look at this page:

http://www.x1.com/products/content_connectors.html

you will see that X1 happily connects to a growing bunch of software.

Here is a list of the formats that X1 currently supports:

http://www.x1.com/products/viewable_file_formats.html

Did you ever look to see if you can add a "status" column to your X1 display? It is there for Outlook, but I gave up on Eudora years ago.

With Eudora due to go open source some time, it would make a lot of sense for X1 to support it as well as possible. Search the forum for "Eudora" to find quite a bit on the stuff. One user even wrote:

I'm a software developer. I am quite impressed with much of what X1 can do for me -- finding a particular email message I wrote to one of the people (but who?) at a particular client about xyz is now so close to instant that I'm not even sure it makes sense to use Eudora's ability to file my mail into folders any more.

[w0qj]

To be fair, X1 still does listen to its users, although sometimes features take longer to arrive than some users would like to wait for...

-Recent version XEC v5.5 implemented the long asked for Real Time Indexing of Files and MS Outlook

-Resizable [Search] textbox

-also v5.5 added the much asked for Drag-and-Drop function (you can drag a file from X1 into your email to turn it into an attachment).

-v5.5 was released last year, so it's not so long ago...


- - - - -
Actually X1 really listened to users during the X1 Desktop Search era, when it charged up to US$100 for a single user back then.

-implemented the [All_Tab] as asked for by users (but I don't see many users using this...)

-added *.MHT file Preview support (and twisting the arms of Stellent in the process)

-added [Don't Preview Pictures or Other Content in Email] also implemented in v5.0 for computer security reasons, as asked by users

-added an option "not" to show the splash screen--sounds trivial? that's my point--X1 listens to its users.


= = = = = =
Like Kenward said, X1 now focuses much more on its paid customers, which we don't see much of on this forum.

[prazim]

Dear Kenward,
I am very sorry if you have taken anything I have written as a criticsm of you in any way. Your abundance of clients or lack thereof is not the subject at hand here. I also have not demanded anything of anyone. I have installed and explored X1 and have observed some things which make it a tool that doesn't work for me. I have posted some of those observations on this forum. At the same time, I have read a number of posts from others, and it seems that, for whatever reason, X1 has not used their forum as a resource for ideas to keep their tool far ahead of the pack, and reflecting the dynamic and creative ideas of their users. Again, this is my impression, and may not be fact. Whatever the case might be, none of my comments are personal towards you, so please don't take them that way. From the content of your posts, your relationship to the company is unclear. So, again, if my observations of the tool are critical of them, they were not intended as a criticsm of you as well.

I really enjoy discovering new tools and work with a number of different solutions from a variety of developers. The trend I am observing is that developers are seeking input from their users for new product features and enhancements then working feverishly to get them incorporated in a way that makes best sense for their business model, becuase those using the tool day in and out have a great sense ususally for the strengths and weaknesses of the tool.

There was an interesting article posted today about a company whose name became a verb, and the new kid on the block, aiming to take their place. You can read it here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2089719,00.asp

Kind Regards to you, Kenward,
Sue