Many factors—from tight travel budgets to broadband adoption to increasing numbers of telecommuters—have given rise to more online meetings. The good news is that secure, simple Web-meeting applications abound, and Citrix Online's GoToMeeting 1.0 is one of the most reasonably priced and easiest to use.

GoToMeeting focuses on sharing applications and presentations; it does not compete directly with more feature-rich online conferencing solutions such as WebEx, which includes videoconferencing and whiteboarding in addition to basic presentation functions. That said, one of GoToMeeting's primary advantages over other services is its flat-fee pricing model (cleverly dubbed "All You Can Meet"). You pay just $49 a month (or $468 per year) and can launch as many meetings as you want, of any duration, without incurring further costs. (Long-distance charges for the phone portion of the meetings, of course, will apply). In contrast, many of the other conferencing services offering additional bells and whistles charge extra fees according to the frequency and length of meetings.

Launching a meeting and inviting attendees in GoToMeeting is very simple. You can launch meetings from Outlook, or by sending instant messages to attendees, who click on an embedded link to join the group. You can also open a meeting from www.gotomeeting.com. Click the Invite Attendees button and enter e-mail addresses for meeting participants. In addition, you can store and distribute upcoming meeting notices, with details on how to join, to Outlook calendars. The number of attendees for any meeting is limited to 10.

Once a meeting begins, attendees see the presenter's desktop and all actions performed there—from viewing Web pages to stepping through a presentation. The presenter controls what's being shown on the screen to remote viewers, and he or she can hand remote control to any participant by clicking a button. There is a chat window for instant messaging among participants, and in typical scenarios, the attendees are connected to a telephone conference call, which GoToMeeting can set up when you launch a meeting. All meetings are protected by 128-bit AES encryption.

GoToMeeting uses patented compression, called bandwidth-adaptive technology, to ensure that participants with different connections—even dial-up users—don't fall behind the presenter. Overall, GoToMeeting impressed us with its easy setup and integration with applications such as Outlook. For those who don't require extras such as videoconferencing and want a reasonable pricing model, it's a great way to make virtual meetings happen.