11 Striking Traits of Sexy, Sacred Software

As Marc Andreesen so perfectly stated it: Software is eating the world.

And as I’ve been thinking about our company’s future and where software in general is heading, I started to see a good ole preacher alliteration coming out in the hottest, most innovative software changing our world.

S is for Software.

I came up with 11 S’s so far. (There’s probably more but you can chime in with those in the comments.)

Companies who nail ANY combination of these, WIN. For now.

That would be a new S … for Sexy. Or even Sacred. Because they become so vital to our lives we can’t live without them.

So here are the 11 striking traits of sexy software that is ruling our lives … with some supreme examples of such (sorry!): 

• Sync — Software should be available everywhere I want it to be, like my iPhone, then my laptop and yes, even at the public library I just used this week. (Dropbox)
• Social — Software should connect me to others. (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, yada yada)
• Share — Software should help me easily share my life (or stuff) with others (WordPress, Pinterest, Swap)
• Stats — Software should help me measure and analyze everything I do. (Google Analytics, Nike+ Running App, or FitBit)
• Sell — Software should help me sell my stuff (Etsy, SquareUp, Stripe)
• Spend — Software should help me buy the stuff I want. (Amazon’s one-click payments, iTunes, [insert any app store])
• Smart — Software should help me find and figure out stuff faster and easier. Yes, software should think for me. (Google’s autofill or shortcuts, Netflix recommendations)
• Simple — Software should be easy to understand and use. Super bonus points if you don’t need a manual or have to ask questions. (Tumblr, Uber)
• Spam — Software should sift out the spam and noise in my life. (Akismet, Gmail)
• Speed — Software should make things faster and streamline life for me. (CDNs, caching services, Mint, but let’s share the worst example of speed: Facebook Mobile)
• Secure — Software should make everything safe and secure (1Password)

This is the epic software checklist I’m sharing with our little company.

How can you apply this to your business and the services you provide to your clients? What are the software tools you’re using to achieve these things for yourself and your clients?