Imagine the convenience of online invites and e-mailed meeting requests, without the dozens of back and forth e-mails to find the best time and date? Starting today, Americans can do just that, with the U.S. introduction of Doodle.com, the free, no registration required, Swiss-based web scheduling service that’s already made millions of Europeans’ lives easier.
Doodle.com’s secret sauce: a simple polling function enabling invitees to vote for their preferred day and time (and more, like location and desired activity) from a list of options provided by an event’s organizer. Big family reunion, Saturday golf outing, girls’ night out; corporate retreat, department meeting or brainstorm session: for hundreds of invitees, or just a few, Doodle is the answer.
Doodle is simple, fast and intuitive. The organizer sets up a poll in just minutes. Doodle sends that person a link to the poll to send to all invitees. As each responds, Doodle tabulates all votes and reports results back to the organizer. Based on results, he or she finalizes details. No dozens of “reply all” e-mails going around, no one accidentally dropped from the list. No lists to keep of when’s best for who.
Don’t be surprised if phrases like “let’s Doodle drinks” or “Doodle me some meeting times” soon enter the vernacular. The service syncs with all popular calendar systems, including Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar and Apple iCal. Doodle-finalized meeting times automatically appear in your calendar, reminders and all.
“Doodle.com is about one thing, making it easier for people and colleagues to get together. It’s a simple idea, but one that took considerable time, investment and effort to make just as simple to use,” said Michel Näf, Doodle’s CEO. “We’re thrilled to bring Doodle to the U.S., home to the many millions of time-starved people who really need it most.”
Näf came up with the idea that would become Doodle out of personal frustration, not as a great business idea. Tired of the back-and-forth it took with friends to schedule a dinner, Näf developed an online system where everyone -˜vote’ for their meeting time of preference. It worked so well, that thanks to word-of-mouth, Näf became convinced he was on to something bigger.
Doodle has earned a die-hard user base and international recognition. In 2008, Doodle won the Mashable Open Web “Blogger’s Choic”and “People’s Choic”awards, the Grand Prix for Best German Facebook Application, and made the Red Herring Global List of Top 100 Most Promising Internet Start-ups worldwide.
Through a new “Branded Doodl”option, companies can sign up for secure, corporate-logoed Doodle accounts, allowing for employee-to-employee and employee-to-client meeting scheduling at the click of a button. Combined with its Microsoft Outlook compatibility, Doodle is the perfect solution for executive assistants and business owners looking to reduce “back and forth” conversations and instead maximizing one’s work day.
With the patent pending Mail Init function, Doodle is also available for use offline. The mobile Doodle page is making the convenience of online scheduling available to on the go people and professionals rarely at a computer.
