Nexo groups get e-mail integration
Nexo, a credible competitor to Yahoo Groups, gets new e-mail features. Still needs some UI work, though.
If you like online groups but can't be bothered to check in on them to see what's going on all the time, you might want to give Nexo a look. We've covered this strong groups platform before, and we think it competes effectively with Yahoo Groups, save for the fact that Yahoo has many times Nexo's users. The Nexo team continues to work on its product. The latest update is tight e-mail integration. Now, not only can you have Nexo ping your e-mail when your groups are updated (Yahoo also does this), but you can contribute to your groups from e-mail without having to go the site at all.
Users can now respond to new forum posts and polls directly in e-mail. This is a handy feature, and if you're trying to increase participation in a group, it could help a lot.
Unfortunately, not all features are enabled for two-way e-mail. The Q&A feature is still site-only, for example. That is, users can get e-mail notification when there are new questions, but they have to go to the site to answer. Also, while we loved Nexo back in February, its design is showing its age in November. While Nexo is a very capable group manager, it is daunting to navigate, and its look and feel is not up to today's standards.
Nexo could use a sugar daddy to rescue it from obscurity. It's a good product but it needs some new duds, and the exposure that a big online brand could bring it.