SMB Tech Roundup: Collaboration Apps, iPad for Business, Google Analytics and QR Code Doubts

Keeping up with every tech headline is hard enough for anybody, let alone busy professionals. To help, ReadWriteBiz rounds up the week’s most important tech news and insights for small- and medium-sized businesses.

In the collaboration Web app department, we saw group chat service Talker drop its subscription price to zero this week and get rolled into the Teambox project management suite. Meanwhile, collaborative task management app Flow, which we covered while it was in beta, officially launched.

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While these kinds of Web-based collaboration tools are all the rage these days, a study we covered this week suggested that companies are not quite sure how beneficial such tools are yet. Collaborative Web tools certainly help businesses cut down on commuting and improve communication, but beyond that, many companies aren’t seeing real benefits yet.

Everybody’s favorite business social networking platform LinkedIn hit 100 million users this week and published a pretty infographic breaking down the statistics on those users.

Web design feedback tool Notable launched a new design of its own this week, giving a fresh look to the browser-based service, which lets you easily gather insights on a page’s design and content from others.

Google Analytics began rolling out their new dashboards to select beta users this week. The customizable, module-based dashboards let you build out reports based on each team member’s specific data needs. They’re not available to all Google Analytics users yet, but you can sign up for early access.

Have you ever scanned a QR code with your phone? If so, you’re a part of a pretty small minority, at least in the United States. About a quarter of Americans own smart phones and out of them, only 32% have ever used a QR code, according to one recent survey.

Tablets are quickly finding their place in business and accordingly, there was a lot of news about the iPad for businesses this week. ReadWriteWeb’s own Klint Finley rounded up the latest in iPad productivity apps, security features and usage statics.

Also over on our sister channel ReadWriteEnterprise, Klint reviewed how to select and migrate to a cloud-based email provider for those companies ready to take the plunge.

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