Yuuguu Screen Sharing Application Out of Beta with Google Talk Integration

Today at the Future of Web Applications conference in London Yuuguu is announcing that its screen sharing and web conferencing application is officially out of beta now. We first reviewed Yuuguu in detail when the screen sharing and web conferencing application was launched a year ago at DEMOfall. Today Yuuguu reports over 100,000 registered users of the application with the number of those using it without registering much higher since no download and registration is required to join a meeting.

Also in the news for the company today is integration with Gmail address book. Basically when a person who hosts a meeting using Yuuguu application wants to have all the contacts from Gmail and Google Talk to appear as Yuuguu contacts to easily invite them to participate in a web meeting, this person simply lets the service know the Google username and password and the contacts will be imported for use right within Yuuguu client.

Such integration offers an interesting approach to distributing the application virally. Since only a meeting host needs to download and install Yuuguu desktop application, he can then invite any of his Google contacts to participate in an online meeting - and they will simply receive the link to join a meeting. Chances are that if these newly-invited contacts enjoy their Yuuguu experience, they will keep the application in mind (or in their bookmarks) for when they next need to host a meeting themselves. At that initially all those invited contacts won’t even have to sign up for Yuuguu or download anything.

Recently we have talked about another screen sharing solution, Mikogo, introducing a special Skype extension that enables screen sharing among users on Skype who also have this extension installed. The approach to integration with IM network (in this case Google Talk) Yuuguu offers today is very different since it simply brings your network of contacts into the application but it still sounds like a useful addition for anyone already using Yuuguu. Besides, it could help Yuuguu ensure viral growth for the application with the help of their own users.