Dabble DB

The Dabble Blog

Archives: Buzz

Dabble in the News

Our ears have been ringing and we now know why -  you’ve been talking about us.

We're curious to know how you’re using Dabble. Thanks to blogs and videos, every so often we get a glimpse.

Whether barrel prices are falling, or pirates are hijacking ships, oil is always a topic of conversation in the news and at home.  Recently, Jon Udell was chatting to a friend about oil and wanted to know where most of our oil comes from. Well, he did his research and used Dabble to create a nice map to show the results, complete with geographic percentage breakdowns.

Moving across the pond...

Simon Willison used Dabble to help him organize The Guardian's first ever Hack Day, which consisted of 37 demos, 24 hours, 15 guest hackers, 8 judges and a handful coveted trophies. More coverage here.

Dabble has also been getting quite a few tweets lately on Twitter.

RealSQL

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Your long range weather forecast calls for sun, wind, rain or snow.

“dabbledb: simplicity without sacrificing flexibility”

Business Ready is a fantastic company that can be described as "the 'go-to' for tactical answers for 'the little guy' just starting out." These guys (well in this case, ladies) are on the cutting edge of sourcing out new tech savvy tools and products that are easy to use and help small businesses hit the ground running. They have tested out some pretty cool products and have broken them down into concise and informative reviews on their blog, and not to mention they have a pretty good sense of humour to keep readers entertained.

As an avid reader of Business Ready's blog, I was happy to see them say such nice things about Dabble:

As Business Ready evolves, our need to collect, manage and share data continues to grow. We decided against a traditional CRM solution to manage our contacts, partly because of price, but mostly because our needs extend far beyond simple contact management. Having the ability to share all of our data from several worldwide locations is critical for us, so we decided to explore Dabble DB.

Working remotely has become more common as businesses have planted their roots internationally, allowing their employees to work outside of the office. Having the ability to access your data from anywhere in the world (provided there is Internet) allows the workflow to run smoothly and remain uninterrupted. Not to mention, it makes working in Belize much more accessible to the workaholic on vacation.

What I loved most about Dabble DB was the simplicity and flexibility. Within minutes I was able to create a customized solution with the ability to analyze the data in whatever way I wanted.

We sometimes get asked why we don't have pre-made forms for customers to use and we figure it's much like pre-made food, you can't take out the stuff you don't like and replace it with the things you do like. Being able to customize your database makes it fit your needs without all the unnecessary fillers and stay fresh and up to date.

The most compelling feature about Dabble DB is the ability to edit the underlying data model and configure fields right from the data entry form.

We're human and we all make mistakes, we figured why make it harder to fix and edit things for our customers?

To read the rest of the blog entry and learn more about Business Ready go here.

"I can't imagine the process being simpler."

Computerworld magazine reviewed Dabble DB in an article last week, and had some nice things to say about how fast and easy it is to get up and running:

Where Dabble DB shines is in importing multiple tables and then setting up relations among fields in different tables after the import. After less than half an hour (including watching an 8-minute demo video), I had imported my data and automatically set up relationships between what were separate Excel sheets.

I can't imagine the process being simpler.

They also complimented us on our "elegant interface" and the drag-and-drop form builder we introduced last year. Dabble DB wasn't the only product reviewed, but we're pleased with how we well we stack up against the competition.

Dabble DB hits the road.

There are some great conferences this month that have the people of Dabble DB packing their suitcases.  If you are doing the same, find us and say hello!

Avi is speaking at SXSW Interactive and QCon and will be attending NTEN's Nonprofit Technology Conference.  Andrew will be joining him at SXSW and NTC. 

Webware 100 finalist

The Webware 100 Awards have come around again.  A list of 4,600 qualifying web 2.0 services is down to 300 finalists.  Yours truly is included in an impressive list of productivity applications. Please take a moment to VOTE before March 31, 2008.


Finalist

Smallthought Systems in BizTech Magazine

Three Nimble, Fast and Small software startups are featured in the September 2007 issue of CDW's BizTech Magazine: Ipolipo, 37Signals, and yours truly.  Many thanks to Dave Chappelle for the words and Christopher J. Morris for the photos.


Biztechblog

Web 2.0, Step 3: get Dabble DB

In an InformationWeek article on “How To Get Started With Web 2.0”, David Strom writes that “Pick a Web-friendly database server” is step 3 - in particular, Dabble DB:

Most of the Web 2.0 technologies involve getting better access, reports, and front-end query interfaces from existing corporate databases. So the best place to start is to choose lightweight projects that can quickly take this information and put it online. “Dabble DB is very Web 2.0 friendly,” says Bob Matsuoka, the founder of RunTime Technologies in New York City. “It’s a generic object database that works with simple data types, and is very easy to use.” You can upload your data in a spreadsheet in a matter of minutes and build a simple application that can cost a few dollars a month to host on their servers, or create a public application for free, according to information on the site.

David’s other recommendations include blogs, wikis, and social networks. The common thread? Tools that empower users to take IT into their own hands. Buzzword or no, this sounds like something we could get behind.

G-Fearing Technologists

And of course by G I mean Google.. The announcement of Google Office, combined with recent news of Kiko running square into Google Calendar and opting for an Ebay IPO, has everyone in a tizzy. We’re even getting people asking us what we’re going to do even though, as far as I know, Google doesn’t even have a product that competes with Dabble*.

The lesson in all of this isn’t a new one. As David has said, you have to be different, you have to create your own blue oceans. Sorry folks, all recent irrational fear and excitement aside, this isn’t a consequence of the mighty G. It was already true.

* Update: despite the fact that there are those who are convinced that Dabble is a spreadsheet ;)

Web 2.0, Eh?

We made this month’s Business 2.0 magazine in a story about the “world’s hottest startups” (where “the world” means “anywhere but the US”). We get to fly the Canadian flag for them, and we’re proud to do so.

I did find this bit from the article amusing, though:

And all, except Bokee and Toodou, are available in English, which goes to show how easily an online business anywhere in the world can go after the U.S. market.

Just think, a Canadian company going out of its way to address the American English-speaking market. C’est vraiment choquant, ça.

Extensive Dabble DB Overview

There is now a detailed analysis of Dabble DB and how it fits into the whole data management space at the OakLeaf Systems blog. Worth a look..