You read that right. web 2.0 boards. sounds strangely out of place in 2008?. think again. Userplane has release its product “Boards” and its a good one i may add. for more details on that you can go to Adam Ostrow post on it. i will give you the short version. Userplane boards are flash based, Userplane IM aware, multi media friendly real time and highly customizable message boards. that is pretty much it and the whole genius behind it is that it mixes  the tech behind other Userplane products like Chat and IM infused into a message board format. This gives old message boards the ultimatum and makes them officially obsolete. 

You can even extend the boards content beyond the actual board and get a board thread widget for your blog. so if you have a active thread you  are interested in or you run, you and your readers can follow it up from your blog or preferred social network profile (like MySpace) since everything is flash based.

The updating of the Message board by Userplace is something i welcome greatly. it was time for something like it because they still got their place but no one had done them truly right in modern way. the closest to it was Tangler. i bet they are not really happy with the news. there has been some great “from old to new” revamps lately. my first favorite example is Mibbit, the web based and widget based  IRC client. you cannot go more neo-retro than with a IRC revamp. the other big jump in terms of  concept refreshing must be Rejaw. what i call “the pownce alternative” or “what Pownce should have been”. Rejaw is a Real Time Microblogging service in the same vein than Pownce that launched last week. I will be writing more about it once they or anyone releases a Widget of it. in the meantime you can find me there too.

Userplane just like Mibbit and Rejaw show that Real Time web based services are what it is needed now and that in the case of Mibbit and Userplane. Widgets are essential to the extension of the service brand and reach. to a lesser degree because it is not truly real time but it is very close would be Plurk. a Nanoblogging service just like Jaiku that also found that having a Widget of the service should be priority to its brand and reach when they launched and that today now enjoy a more engaged and active audience that not only Jaiku the service they are the alternative for but also the very hyped Identi.ca.

I think that this new product by Userplane should do very well since it is free and it supported by Userplace advertising that has proven quite effective so far.

Userplane Boards

via Mashable