Score an invite to the private beta of iubo

If you spend a lot of time in front of the computer, you probably collect dozens of little snippets of information each day: Web sites to visit later, documents you want to review some other time, contact info of people you want to catch up with next week, reminders about what to pack for your next trip.

There are all kinds ways to track your stuff online (Del.ici.ous, Remember the Milk), but they leave your data segregated across several Web sites. There are also a few options for corralling and indexing all your stuff right on the computer (Google Desktop, Mac OS X Spotlight), but they don't help much when you're away from your desk.

The folks at iubo feel your pain and have designed a Web site where you can store online all the dribs, drabs, and what-nots you accumulate and then access them later, no matter where you are. Once you create an account, you can add and track information on pretty much anything you can think of: pictures, bookmarked Web sites, contact information, notes, documents, and so on. You can even add tags and color-code data for easier searching later.




This is a great idea, and we're all for a site that streamlines access to our information and makes it easy for us to get to. That said, iubo's not quite ready for prime time.

Since there's no way to import information yet, data input is a very hands-on (read: time consuming) experience. If you're planning to index 2GB of stuff from your computer, you're in for a long day of cutting and pasting. The site's developer says that an importing tool is on the way, though, so that will certainly make using this site a lot easier.

The biggest concern we have, however, is data safety. While no one's more tempted than us to upload a bazillion megabytes of data so we can search it from our laptops at the corner coffee shop, that kind of thing seems awfully risky -- sort of like handing over your backpack and spare keys to the bookstore clerk and hoping nothing bad happens. It doesn't appear there's any particular methods in place to ensure your data's safety beyond an ordinary login page.

While we just can't recommend that our readers data dump with abandon, there are a few practical ways to put iubo to use. For example, it's a great place to store information on a project you're working on. Lots of us use Google Notebook to manage URLs and Web sites for things we're researching, but iubo would be a terrific place to accumulate additional stuff for a project: team contact info, slideshows, media clips, and so on. iubo would also be handy for tracking non-sensitive information like books lists or reminders of who you've loaned your DVDs.

If you're intrigued by iubo and want to see how you can make it work for you, we've got 250 invites to give away for the private beta. To score one, just leave a comment for us (make sure to activate it), and we'll send one your way.

Tags: beta, data, feature, invitation, invite, iubo, personal information manager, search