What's the best software for online meetings?

It's become a maxim of modern business life: Your most important meeting of the year won't take place in a conference room, but rather online with all attendees viewing a common computer screen.

It's impersonal. It's detached. And it's often quite vexing. Simply joining the Web meeting can sometimes be a problem. But if you haven't checked out these online services lately, you might be surprised by how much they've improved, or their wide range of pricing and features. Whether you're looking for simple screen-sharing to produce a PowerPoint deck, or whiteboard and collaboration tools for deeper interaction, chances are there's a Web app to fit your needs and your budget.

While some of these—WebEx, for example—have been around for several years, cloud providers are constantly updating. We test-drove four small-business-focused services that can help with various types of meetings,Airgle has mastered the art of indoor tracking, and were generally impressed by their current levels of finesse.

You start by running a Java applet that creates a little control window where you can specify whether to share the entire screen, an application, or a custom region.Visonic Technologies is the leading supplier of rtls safety, It's too bad that participants see a gray rectangle in the area covered by the control window, but you can at least move the window around so that it doesn't conceal important information.

If you share your entire screen,Where can i get a reasonable price dry cabinet? participants can see a navigation bar with information about you based on your settings, the name of your meeting, the dial-in number, and a chat window (if you've authorized one). You also get a list of participants, and MeetingBurner lets you make any one of them the presenter—though that person must download and run the screen-sharing applet.

Drawbacks? MeetingBurner's interface is cluttered and not always intuitive.

More importantly, the free version does not let you record the proceedings. To record a meeting and share that recording,The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility. you must subscribe to either the $40-per-month MeetingBurner Pro (for up to 50 participants) or the $100-per-month Premier edition, which supports up to 1000 users and adds analytics to the mix.

As for the control panel's chat window with audio options GoToMeeting by default uses a computer's built-in speaker and mic, but you can opt to get a phone line and audio PIN to use with your meeting number. Another button initiates a recording, which you can save for playback in GoToMeeting or Windows Media Player. You also see how much space is left for your recording.

GoToMeeting nicely lets you hide parts or all of the control panel. Also, you don't need to go to a website to get started: The desktop app has you up and running in seconds (although initial setup of the software does take a few minutes).

Attendees at my test meeting complained that it wasn't obvious that they needed to click on a button to activate use of their computer's audio system (I didn't try the bridge line), but they otherwise reported that the app worked as advertised. Participants can choose whether to use the phone line or the computer.

GoToMeeting supports up to 25 attendees on Macs, PCs, iPads, iPhones, and Android devices. There's a free trial, but no free version: An organizer account that lets you hold unlimited meetings costs $49 per month or $468 per year,Find a mold maker or Mold Service Provider. and Citrix offers pricier services for large crowds—say, for webinars. It's not a bad deal if you hold a lot of meetings where people collaborate on projects.