This special edition of TechnoLawyer NewsWire was originally published on December 15, 2010.
Ruth Edlund once described TechnoLawyer as a "collective mind" — one of my all-time favorite characterizations. TechnoLawyer is also a data-driven media property. We try to rely on data rather than anecdotal evidence whenever possible to guide our decisions. And nowhere is our reliance on data more evident than in TechnoLawyer NewsWire as we track the number of clicks on the 250 products we cover in this newsletter each year. Below you will find the 15 products you and your fellow TechnoLawyer NewsWire subscribers found most intriguing as suggested by the number of clicks they received.
Was 2010 the year of the tablet? Yes, but not all tablets. We wrote about Toshiba's Libretto W100 (pictured above) and its two screens on August 18th. Remember, we just report on new products here (we review products in some of our other newsletters but not in this one). So how has the Libretto W100 fared? Has it sold millions of units? Not quite. The critics panned it and Toshiba quickly pulled it from the market.
2. Doxie
What can I say? TechnoLawyers love learning about scanners — even this consumer model with little hearts on the front that we covered on April 28th.
Document management is also a hot topic (download our free document management system buyer's guide if you don't have a copy yet). Snapdone, which we covered on November 17th, adds document management and document assembly functions to Microsoft Office. No wonder it ranked third.
This project management software, which we covered on August 25th, offers lots of customization options for those who like to tinker with their workflows. But despite its name, it cannot perform magic. You yourself must complete all the tasks you enter.
5. Square
This credit card processing company replaces all the inscrutable fees in typical merchant accounts with a single, albeit higher, discount rate. However, TechnoLawyer subscriber James McCorquodale subsequently reported that it's not a good fit for law firms. We covered Square on May 12th.
6. Pimero
We reported on this Outlook alternative on July 14th. I like that it offers true bulk mailing. There's nothing more annoying than an email amateur who uses BCC to send bulk mail.
On March 24th, we told you about this open source document management system that can automatically archive your email. Despite being open source, Alfresco Enterprise is not free.
8. iPad
We usually report only on finished products that you can buy — but how could we have waited until April to tell you about Apple's iPad, the most anticipated gadget of the year? Instead, we covered this game-changing tablet on January 27th within hours of its announcement.
9. HotDocs 10
We reported on HotDocs 10, which makes it easier to transform your model documents into templates, on June 2nd. Six weeks later, document assembly guru Marc Lauritsen reviewed it in our TechnoFeature newsletter, awarding it a perfect TechnoScore of 5.0.
10. OnIt
On December 1st, we told you about this new online project management system that borrows from social networks like Facebook. The company seemed pretty happy with our coverage, tweeting "Thanks for the great review of Onit. Your article sent us a lot of website traffic." It wasn't a review but glad we could help all the same.
11. Law Charge
Do you sense a trend here? Yes, another credit card processing company though Law Charge, which we covered on May 5th, specializes in servicing law firms.
12. Stacks
Another Web-based task management system? Clearly, we have some busy subscribers seeking organizational nirvana. On July 28th, we reported on Stacks, which uses charts and data to help you visualize your workflow. I'm not sure if these charts will make you feel better or worse so keep some Valium handy and brace yourself.
13. Portal4Law 5.0
Portal4Law 5.0, which we covered on November 10th, offers Web-based practice management, including document management. Some legal vendors make it easy for us to cover their products and some don't. If we gave out awards for helpfulness, PortalSoft's Director of Marketing would probably win.
Expect to see more products like ADERANT Practice Manager in 2011 and beyond — Web-based practice management systems from established vendors. Thus far, scrappy startups have dominated the SaaS landscape, but this era won't last forever. Some of these pioneers will become major players in their own right, but others will be acquired or squashed by software companies with a large installed base of customers. We reported on ADERANT Practice Manager on October 6th.
15. Less Accounting
Last but not least (since it ranked higher than 235 other products), Less Accounting, which we covered on June 17th, is an online accounting system that imports data from QuickBooks and integrates with PayPal.
Read about the other 235 products we covered in 2010 in the TechnoLawyer Archive.
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