TECH WATCH
Real estate technology news analysis
Mike Antoniak is a freelance journalist, who writes frequently on technology.
Get Attached to Middleware
A Way to E-Mail Attachments Efficiently
If your clients complain about the slow loading time for photos and files, a solution may be just around the corner.
BY MICHAEL ANTONIAK
If you’re relying on e-mail to deliver virtual tours, MS PowerPoint” ™ presentations, or PDF files to clients, you may be taxing the efficiency of your Internet service or network. Middlewire, Inc. proposes that there’s a better way--its Web-based content delivery service.
“Files are getting larger and people are using e-mail in ways that were never intended,” according to David Bregman, director of product marketing for the company.
Bergman says that SMTP protocol, on which e-mail is based, was originally developed for sending and receiving simple text messages over a network. Today though, Web users routinely attach files that significantly increase the size of e-mail messages.
For the real estate salesperson working through a local ISP, this limitation can mean an agonizing wait when trying to send or receive photographs, contracts, or other byte-heavy files. Even in a networked office environment, the size of these attachments can claim precious bandwidth and disrupt the efficient flow of information.
Consequently, Bregman says, many companies and ISPs now impose limits on the size of attachments that can move by e-mail, typically two megabytes. But this limitation creates new problems.
“Some systems simply reject a message because the attachment is too large, without bouncing it back. As a result, the sender isn’t even aware that there’s a problem,” Bregman explains. If you have limitations on attachment size, you must resort to alternate means of delivering large files, such as logging onto a FTP server to transfer files, sending disks of files by overnight courier, or posting them to a Web site. “None of these are an ideal solution when you want to get the information in someone’s hands as quickly as possible,” he says.
Middlewire’s “Content Delivery”service presents another option. As Bregman explains it, the system separates an e-mail message fromattachments larger than 500Kand stores these attachments on Middlewire’s server. When the recipient receives the message, a URL for each attachment is embedded in the text. The URL can be password protected, if needed. Recipients click on this URL to launch their Web browser to the Middlewire Web site, where they can view or download the attachment file. The page containing the attachment can be customized to include information about the company or salesperson along with the attachments.
“Another advantage of this system is that the sender automatically receives a notification when a recipient accesses the URL,” adds Bregman. “That way, real estate salespeople know who is seriously interested in a particular home, so they can follow up.”
Middlewire will offer its new service in two versions. Individuals can now access the content delivery service by logging on to the Middlewire site to compose e-mail there for transmission. The message will arrive as if sent from their own e-mail account. For $250 per month users can have e-mail recipients retrieve a total of to 500 megabytes of data from the Middlewire server. Some real estate practitioners may find the costs outweigh the benefits.
In networked environments with a Microsoft “Exchange” or Lotus “Notes,” server, users can compose messages in their resident e-mail application. The system will automatically separate attachments from the message, insert the URL, and relay the message. Pricing for this service, which will be available in March, has not been established.
Middlewire is proposing one way to e-mail larger files without tying up a lot of bandwidth. If that’s an issue you’re concerned with, you may want to look at its service.
Author’s Note: Last April, I wrote a Tech Watch column called “Zap Your E-mail with New Capabilities” in which I described “zaplets,” another way to deliver access to images, documents, and project files by e-mail without significantly increasing the size of an e-mail message.
