Review: Cc:Betty
Cc:Betty is a web application designed to make dealing with group email more efficient. I’ve found that corporate types use email as a group discussion tool, which makes it difficult to track conversations and dig out useful attachments. Betty solves this by gathering emails together and indexing the attachments for easy browsing.
Usage is simple: sign up with your email address and a password, then cc betty@ccbetty.com. The first email that includes Betty will result in an email to the group that explains how to use Betty:
Hiya, I’m Betty! Since Alex Young Cc:’d me on the email, I set up a Mailspace for this email where you can more easily follow the discussion. Of course, you can always reply and forward right from email as usual. Just keep me Cc:’d and I’ll keep track of everything. Thanks!
This message also includes a summary:
Interestingly, it’s possible for people who aren’t registered to Cc:Betty to use the links in the email. They will be asked to enter their email address, and then they can access the Cc:Betty view of the conversation:
Betty effectively automatically signs them up:
You are seeing a limited view of this discussion.
An activation email has been sent to alex@example.com. Please check your spam folder if you don’t see it.
Click the ‘Confirm Account’ link at the top of the page to resend the activation email.
I noticed that the recipient must subsequently sign up to get access to new Cc:Betty conversations, else Betty won’t pick them up (messages to the same conversation will be OK). I thought at first their service (or my email) was just lagging for a few minutes, but as soon as the other user signed up new conversations flooded through.
Clicking on the Mail tab gets you an overview of all conversations with unread content. Betty calls this view “Mailspaces”:
It’s a good summary view, but it would be nice if the summary included some content from the original email.
Limitations
Conversations are limited to 100 recipients, which seems generous enough to me. In my experience, professional email conversations involve 4-8 people rather than dozens, but Betty’s features could make it easier to hold larger discussions.
Storage is limited to 1GB, but they’ll upgrade this on request. I’d imagine storage will be part of their premium package. Messages are limited to 20 MB, and 100 MB when sent through the web interface.
Pricing
Betty’s free, and they’re implementing unannounced premium features.
Conclusion
Judging by Cc:Betty’s blog, it’s still early days for the service. It’s currently usable, and I couldn’t find any show-stopping bugs during my testing. I typically use Basecamp for messaging multiple recipients in a professional context, but Betty will be a great tool for non-project related work.
One minor problem is you can’t seem to delete content right now. Even though deleting content isn’t a core requirement of the product, people will want to tidy up irrelevant links and images that might accumulate over time.
Designers working with email-addicted managers will definitely find the service useful. As long as they can remind people to reply to all and remember to initially Cc:Betty.
Recommend Betty to your boss and see how it goes!
