Flickr's Stewart Butterfield Wants to Cut Us Some Slack From Mountains of Email

When working in a team environment, especially when many people are remote, communication can be tough, and sometimes downright frustrating. One problem that arises is being unable to keep in tune with everyone else easily, made worse if the lines of communication are spread across different methods and services. Then there's the issue of distractions - having to pay attention to a bunch of different services to keep an eye out for things leads to one thing: less work getting done.

Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield wants to solve this issue, and is attempting to with "Slack", a team-targeted messaging tool that aims to rid all other solutions. Taking a quick look at a screenshot is all it takes to see Slack's potential:

At the left, channel filters; center, all conversation related to it; and to the right, activity related to the project. At the top-right is a search, which is said to be extremely effective, as it queries everything, not just conversations.

Of course, Slack is available for both the desktop and mobile, so regardless of what you have in front of you, you'll be able to check in on things quickly.

I admit, I'm very intrigued by Slack. It's a one-stop solution that just looks to "work", and is easy-to-follow... it's hard to not love that. Currently, you can sign up for Slack and hope to get chosen to help test. For everyone else, the final release date is up in the air, as is pricing.