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With well over 300,000 users, we know many of you are happy Mac users, like me.  So ensuring that you can successfully use TimeBridge with your Apple iCal calendaring system is a high priority for us.

So if you are a Mac user, we’ve got some great news for you!  Our Mac Connector is now ready for public beta.  We debuted Apple iCal integration when we announced the private beta a few months ago.   Like the Outlook and Google Calendar integration that preceded it,   Mac users can fully integrate their Apple iCal calendars with TimeBridge. By connecting TimeBridge to iCal, Mac users can take advantage of all of the features of the Personal Scheduling Assistant.  Claim your very own Personal Availability Link to let people know when you are available to meet.  Create a TimeBridge Group to make it easier get your project team or your rock band together.  Host a phone or web conference with a single button click.   It’s all good and it’s all ready for you to check out now.

We have a special place in our hearts for administrative professionals because, like them, we take care of the logistical tasks so that you can continue to do your business. But while we specialize in meetings, administrative professionals take on all the tasks of making sure needs are met, whether it’s managing an office, arranging supply orders deliveries, staying on top of payroll, or organizing company events.

In fact, it was our positive experiences with administrative assistants that in part inspired us to create TimeBridge as a tool that could replicate and expedite one of their most frustrating but important tasks: scheduling meetings – a process we tried to make as easy and painless as possible. We’ve since seen a demand for an expansion of our functionality, as the tasks of administrative professionals are now far more vast than the day-to-day errands or business logistics. In any case, for what they do and the efficiency and organization with which they do it, we’re extremely grateful!

If there’s an administrative professional in your life, treat them nicely today and perhaps schedule your own meeting – don’t worry, we can help!  If you’re an administrative professional, our hats off to you and all that you do.

It’s that time again! Webware has announced the finalists for the Webware 100 and TimeBridge is fortunate to be included for the second year in a row and we need your help to win!

Every year, CNet’s Webware blog selects 300 applications, services and Websites as finalists for 10 spots in 10 categories which readers vote for. We were nominated in the productivity category and voting opens today at noon, March 31, 2009 (GMT-8).

Here at TimeBridge it’s our goal to create tools that help you all to be more productive, and over the last year we’ve launched what we think are some great features in that vein, including the Daily Brief, TimeBridge Groups (news)  and Web conferencing (news). We hope that all of these have helped make your lives easier and that you will show your appreciation by casting your vote HERE.

I am thrilled we are considered for this award and would love it if you showed your support for TimeBridge and voted!

You ask, we listen… Via email, phone or twitter.

Starting today you can create & schedule meetings on 15 minutes increments. It means a meeting can start at 10:15 and be 45 min long. A meeting can even be 15 min long altogether (you can achieve so much in 15 minutes - give it a try - just click & drag with any 15 min boundary)

Many more improvements are in the works… our goal is to build the best possible meeting scheduling system. Let us know what else you’d like to see in TimeBridge! Just email support@timebridge.com — we are listening

We have been hard at work finding lots of new ways to make TimeBridge work for you and today we’re excited to announce a new feature for the 300,000 people and 16,000 businesses that are using TimeBridge to facilitate the meeting process: Cost-effective Web Conferencing, in a single click!

The TimeBridge Personal Conferencing Service is a full-service; one-click web and phone conferencing offering that is drastically less expensive and easier to use than other conferencing services. We designed the service as a competitive alternative to pricey WebEx and GoToMeeting offerings in order to supply our users with all the standard conferencing features, including a personal conference call number and web conferencing, for 80% less than the leading conferencing service providers – a flat $8.95 a month. It can be used for any meeting, regardless of whether it was set up using TimeBridge.  Best of all – it is Flash based, so no download is required.

With paired down budgets all over the place, we understand you need to cut down on expenses and travel. We wanted to make it easier AND cheaper for you to continue to work collaboratively and productively without the headache, no matter what your budget.

Sign up today for a 30-days free trial: http://www.timebridge.com/lp/site_pcs_trial.html

Today we announced the availability of TimeBridge Groups – a new feature to our service that allows TimeBridge members to create groups and invite members in order to communicate and schedule meetings within the group more effectively.

Since we launched a little over a year ago we’ve seen tremendous growth, now over 250,000 have used TimeBridge. One thing that stood out to us, was the fact that a very common use case for TimeBridge was the coordination of formal and informal groups – for example boards, non-profits teams, product teams, client teams, m&a teams and more. The common thread between all of them? Members tend to span across more than one organization, and frequently more than one time zone. TimeBridge Groups is our response – allowing and enabling our users to work the way they want to. You spoke, we listened.

One of the cool aspects of TimeBridge Groups is it elevates the good old “distribution list” into the cloud, providing the value of communication without the heavy-weight yahoo- or google-groups overhead. Light, easy, useful!

But this is only the beginning… the best ideas always come from our users, and we have a strong constant stream of suggestions coming through. Please also enage with us on Twitter – follow @TimeBridge and myself @YoriNelken (what the heck… you may learn something about my international family too ;-))

Wow! 6 months ago (see the June 4th post below), we announced 50,000 users… Today, we’re excited to say that over 200,000 people and 12,000 companies are using TimeBridge to ease the hassle of scheduling. We’re seeing a lot of fantastic viral growth – adding 10,000 users each week and growing at about 30% percent a month. It’s great to see so many people finding a solution for their scheduling blues.

Recent commentary includes:

• Chris Sherrod: “Stop wasting time scheduling time! Use TimeBridge to schedule your next meeting. It’s fast and easy. So far I love the service and it is reducing time me or my assistant spend scheduling appointment times.” - Abundance Unlimited, November 9, 2008
• Mark Gibbs: “TimeBridge scores really big in its two-way integration with Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and iCal-based systems. This is definitely the best scheduling service I’ve seen so far and raises the bar very high for competitors. I’ll give TimeBridge a ‘Way Cool’ out of 10.” - Network World, October 29, 2008
• “Timebridge rocks and has saved me countless hours of back and forth emails.” - Anonymous TimeBridge user, October 2008

We recently asked TimeBridge users if they have recommended TimeBridge to friends and colleagues and over 90% of you said YES. We’re thrilled by this clear testament to the satisfaction and collaboration within the TimeBridge user community and are so happy you all love TimeBridge so much you are sharing it with others. Thanks for being a part of it, and we’re looking forward to making your lives even easier in the new year.

Last week we announced TimeBridge’s support for Apple iCal, making it our third major calendar integration, in addition to Microsoft Outlook, and Google Calendar! Of course you can still use TimeBridge no matter what your calendar of choice is, but we now offer the same integrated meeting services of scheduling and availability sharing for those Mac users who have been holding out for TimeBridge Apple iCal support. The acceptance was awesome!

While this is great news for TimeBridge users that are also Mac users, we’re also thrilled to announce that TimeBridge has gone mobile - that’s right! Users can now easily schedule meetings and get-togethers while on the move with our new mobile support on Blackberry, iPhone or any other Internet-enabled device.

We also hit another big milestone: our 100,000 110,000 users mark. These are exciting updates, and we see them as much-needed features for our users who depend on TimeBridge to solve their scheduling struggles - all 110,000 of them!

Here at TimeBridge, we’re thrilled to have a panel that’s being considered for the 2009 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival. The panel is called “Improved Efficiency: Making Your Office More Web 2.0 App-etizing” and will will address how Web 2.0 tools are replacing the formerly Microsoft-monopolized modern workplace and bridging the gap between traditional applications and the efficiency needed from everyday applications.

Please make sure to vote for our panel here!

Over the past few months, we’ve been excited to see growth in the number of users (now more than 70,000!) as well as the increasing variety of user groups emerging, all embracing TimeBridge for its efficiency and simplicity in scheduling. It’s come as no surprise, then, that many of our users are educators.

Besides keeping strict class schedules, educators must also carve out time for students and fellow faculty and the task of finding mutually convenient meeting times can be a frustrating process. With hectic days and small budgets, an increasing number of educators are turning to the cost and time efficient Web 2.0 offerings such as TimeBridge, Twitter and Remember the Milk to coordinate their busy schedules and get other things done efficiently.

For one of the users out there in the educational system, teacher-blogger, Vicki Davis of Camilla, Georgia, TimeBridge has proved instrumental in some large educational endeavors beyond the basic day-to-day scheduling.
Vicki, who teaches 8th-12th graders is the founder of the Horizon Project which aims to bring students together from classrooms all over the world for discussion and research in a global forum. One challenge that arose in the beginnings of the project was finding a time when all of the participating teachers from time zones like Australia, Qatar and Bangladesh, could make plans for the project. The dilemma of scheduling across time zones is what led Vicki to introduce TimeBridge as a collaborative tool.
“These projects would really not be possible without TimeBridge because we would not be able to get together to plan and strategize,” says Vicki.

For Dustin Brentlinger, Dean of Students at Heidelberg College in Ohio, meetings with students are a common part of his day. Coordinating these meetings were often a challenge by email and phone with students who often forgot or ignored his calls and emails. According to Dustin, TimeBridge allows him to better communicate and coordinate with students who are more comfortable communicating digitally.
We’re very excited that TimeBridge is finding such use in the educational sector and hope that more teachers be able to find ease in managing their often complicated and intricate schedules.