These are the problems that ÜberConference, a new (and currently free) conferencing tool from Firespotter Labs, was created to solve. Several of Firespotter’s employees come from the team that developed Google Voice, and their stated goal with ÜberConference is to develop a similarly innovative and useful tool for conferencing. We experimented with the tool to see how much it could streamline the teleconference experience.

First look: ÜberConference lets you manage conference calls visually | Ars Technica.

Once the conference has ended, you can view a small conference summary that will show you how long the call lasted, who talked the most, and who talked the least. If you elected to record the call, a small speaker icon will appear next to the call—click it to listen to the call in your browser window or download the MP3.

ÜberConference is still in the early stages of development, but at the moment it looks like an elegant (if not perfect) solution for many of teleconferencing’s shortcomings. I would still like to see ÜberConference let users assign their own conference numbers to ÜberConference accounts, but if you can get every member of your team to use the service, it provides useful visual feedback and features like call recording and call history that make it worth considering—even if you already have a conferencing solution.