Group greetings are a popular concept in the real world. You know, the time when Larry the tech guy was moving cities, and your office assistant got everyone to sign the “We’ll miss you Larry!” poster. Let’s face it: it’s sweet and does the job of appreciating someone. Now Denver-based SquidNote wants to take this concept and port it over to the web.
Here’s how it works. Someone — anyone — who wants to take the first step, can initate the process by starting the group note. They can choose the cover among a selection of plenty, including “Get Well,” “Miss You,” and “Congratulations,” preview it, and add their message to any spot of the poster. The message can include an image and things like the font style are customizable. After this, they enter the recipient’s name, e-mail, delivery date, and their own details.
And now comes the killer part: they can invite anyone from their Facebook friends list, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, AOL, Outlook, or even distribute the permalink (here’s my example one), and SquidNote takes it from there — the group note is delivered automatically to the e-mail at the set date.
Surely, the idea has its own niche, but I have to admit it’s one of the better executed ones out there. As you’ve probably noticed, an impressive feature of theirs is inviting others. Ideally, every service ought to have such an input mechanism of contacts and friends. And apart from that, most other parts of their service does a great job of working, too.
So the next time Larry the tech guy is leaving, start him a SquidNote, forward it to the office, and watch it build itself — without doing any extra work. Oh and of course, if you’re a fan of print, be sure to print a copy and hand it to him. Though being a tech guy, I’m not sure how much he’ll appreciate the latter!
