Web Worker Daily

The web brings with it great opportunities to connect with others centered around just about any common interest, and there are a multitude of tools and services available to help facilitate this. A new player in this area is BlastGroups, which is entering public beta today.

BlastGroups makes it really easy to create your own community site where you can share just about anything with your group. Features include message boards, email blasts, events, pictures, videos, audio and more. The interface is simple and logical without a lot of flash or flair. Toolbar bookmarks make “Sending a Blast” to your groups or contacts remarkably simple. Integrated RSVP functionality make the calendar really useful for event planning.

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Grou.ps, aims to be a catch-all for teams seeking collaboration.  This Swiss army tool of a collaborative site includes ‘Modules’ that enable various degrees of functionality, based on your teams’ needs.  Grou.ps currently offers:

• chat
• blogs
• wikis
• mailing lists + forums
• photo albums
• links (centralized bookmarks)
• maps
• subgroups
• personal profiles
• calendaring

Grou.ps has smartly offered these tools in such a way to capitalize on your existing assets on the web.  That is, your list of links can be based off links already existent on del.icio.us, your photo gallery can be made up of pictures from Flickr, log entries can come from an exisitng blog on the web, and finally, collaborative member’s updates can come from Twitter, if they wish.

These modules exist on an attractive webpage that contain your own template, absent of any branding.  Modules can be customized through extensive preference options.  No ads or branding exist on the site, including the emails that are sent out from the service to users.  Want to access your Grou.ps site on your mobile phone?  No problem - just surf to your site’s mobile address.

Grou.ps’ main advantage to collaboration is they allow you to leverage assets your team already has established on the Internet.  Similar to Tumlr, this means you don’t have pictures, links, and other assets existing in multiple places, minimizing maintenance.