AwayFind May Become The Best Solution For My Contact Needs

AwayFind is a contact resource site created by Jared Goralnick, self described productivity evangelist, that is currently in private beta. I had the chance to test this out over the past few days, and I have to say I'm excited for its potential.

As with any private beta, it has a few glitches. That's the whole point of being in beta, however, to work them out. I found Jared to be quite responsive to questions and issues surrounding the AwayFind service. That bodes well for the success of his idea.

When I spoke with Jared about reviewing his site here on Profy, he was all for it, with one caveat – no disclosing of the release date plans. Fair enough – I can live with an embargo on the release details, especially as the product is so useful.

Over all I found the site very easy to use, with a simple, easy to understand set up process. Everything went smoothly except for a hitch at the end. Where I was supposed to send myself a test message to confirm my AwayFind page was indeed created, it kept thinking my message entry box was too full at zero characters. A quick mention to Jared via Twitter and the bug was fixed rapidly.

By providing a branded page with your name, photo or logo and a variety of contact information, AwayFind gives you all of the convenience of a multi-function contact form without having to know anything about programming. I liked that a lot. I do know enough to create my own basic form, but this is so much less hassle and offers many more options for people seeking me out.

What I liked most about it were the number of ways I could offer people to connect with me, and the number of categories I could create to make sure their needs were crystal clear to me right from the start. I ended up making a category for each blog I write for, both personal and professional (including a way to send me news items for Profy), a category for my friends and family and a category for events and speaking engagement invitations and announcements.

Once I had that done, I could associate each individual category with the notification type that I wanted. Each one goes to the specific email for that blog or company. Certain categories, like friends and family, also go to my cell phone as an SMS. That was the most invaluable feature of AwayFind to me – eliminating guess work. Now I receive an email with the subject I associated it with on AwayFind, and for important contacts, also a nudge on my phone.

I had a few people test my page. The delivery time was very fast. Of the several people I had try it out, I received my email and/or SMS message for the various categories in minutes. No waiting means I can trust I'll get important notifications and emails on time

What AwayFind is offering is a chance to disconnect from my computer on occasion. Knowing I won't miss that important email or call frees me to step away from the laptop and desktop again to pursue my interests outside my home office. That is invigorating. I'd love to see them eventually make a plug in for blogs like WordPress, but over all, I'm quite happy with the potential for this site.