CallWave took the wraps off FUZE, a web-based service that works through your browser (though software is required for some handhelds) to deliver online conferencing and collaboration, and even high-def video. You can read about the specifics in my article on the main site.

Here I'm going to fill you in a little about my experience behind the wheel, so to speak.

Let's be honest; online meeting software is hardly new. But FUZE (all caps) has some nice things going for it.

Last week, I was on a conference call with CallWave's CEO, Jeff Cavins, with FUZE as both the subject of the call and a backdrop. For starters, the default interface is quite nice: slick and tastefully dimmed so that the main window is the center of attention. Everything else (chat window, roll-call widget...) is arrayed pretty logically. What you see on the FUZE site (above) is pretty much what you get.

The best part, in my opinion, is the main viewing area.

Sure, usually PowerPoint presentations go there, but with FUZE you can stream HD-quality video (YMMV). Those with fat pipes will surely enjoy some great-looking online training sessions; doctors and scientists can zoom into the tiniest details of an x-ray, CAT scan or computer rendering; and video experts can pick apart the latest footage and edits.

On the technical side, FUZE sports a lot of features such as Outlook scheduling, negotiating VoIP gateways, Active Directory support and all those other checkboxes that make IT staffers happy.

From a user's perspective though, it's nice to finally attend a web meeting without crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. Everything pretty much worked smoothly on my aging 1.4 GHz ThinkPad laptop running XP and Firefox with a scant 768MB RAM, including the synchronized video streaming, dramatic image zoom-ins and all manner of interactive elements. I've had web conferences that refused to work on anything else but IE, and even with that requirement met, even static presentations crawled.

You might think it's time for a better laptop, and you might be right. But think about this. Today's netbooks don't have that much more horsepower than yesterday's laptops, if that. And which one would you rather be lugging around?

I can't speak to the meeting organizer's dashboard and its ease of use, but my time with it as a participant was pretty flawless. It's also eye pleasing. I know, they say content is king, but there's no harm in having a nice wrapper too. And if you want to uglify it, FUZE is customizable.

In short, my 45 minutes or so with FUZE revealed a web-based conferencing and collaboration product that's pretty polished at this early stage. And having sat through countless web meetings, that's saying a lot.