All too often, when business websites cover mind mapping software, they rely on freelance writers who highlight a random collection of programs – and ignore some truly great ones. Their recommendations mislead business people who are seeking mind mapping solutions to their information management challenges – and cause them to underestimate the true power of mind mapping software.
A typical scenario
It happens multiple times per year: I get a Google Alert for “mind mapping,” telling me a new article has been published somewhere on the interwebs that is focused on my pet subject. So I click through, excited but at the same time tempering my expectations. You see, I’ve been disappointed many times before.
Inevitably, the article focuses on a brief list of low-end mind mapping programs and apps that wouldn’t cut it in a business setting. I’m sure these apps are great for casual users, consumers and students. But they’re not designed with the needs of business people in mind.
In addition, many of these articles include a handful of tools that aren’t mind mapping software, but CAN do it – as part of a myriad of diagramming and process visualization capabilities. Frequently, these applications lack the depth to be usable business mind mapping solutions. They require too many steps to add new content and format it to suit typical needs. In short, using a diagramming program for mind mapping is a compromise.
Even worse, some of these freelance writers are simply trying to churn out content in exchange for pay, quality be damned. As a result, the list of programs seems to be based on the first set of pages that showed up in Google search results. Even the wording of some of these articles reads like it was copied and pasted from the developers’ websites. A few sentences of marketing copy doesn’t provide much useful information about how each program can be valuable in a business setting. That makes many of these “listicle” articles almost completely useless.
A better approach – but no writers do this. Ever.
An alternative would be to contact one or more leading experts in the field of mind mapping software to ASK which programs are best suited to business applications. But this never happens. Liam Hughes from Biggerplate.com and I were commiserating on a Skype call last week about this very issue, and we agree that neither of us has ever been contacted by any writers seeking to assemble an accurate list of the best mind mapping tools for business. Not one. Zero. Zip. Nada.
To the writers who churn out this useless crap, I say shame on you. As a writer myself, I would never dream of publishing an article based solely on Google search results. If you can’t even do a rudimentary job of research, then don’t bother writing such garbage articles!
Why is this a problem?
Articles like these tend to give a distorted picture of mind mapping software. They make it look like a casual business toy, not a serious business tool that can help you be more productive, creative and effective. Most of these low-end applications are designed to do one thing: Capture and arrange ideas. Most lack rudimentary business features like:
- The ability to attach files and links to topics
- The ability to add notes to topics
- The ability to covert topics into tasks
- The ability to export mind maps to multiple business-oriented formats, such as Microsoft
- Word, PowerPoint and Outlook
Examples of bad mind mapping recommendations
Here are some of the more egregious offenders I located, using the search phrase “best mind mapping software for business,” along with the “best” tools they recommend. All of the articles came from the first 2-3 pages of Google search results; that corresponds to the average depth of the typical web search.
Organize your thoughts and ideas with this list of the 15 best mind mapping tools
Questionable recommendations:
- Bubbl.us
- Coggle
- Popplet
- Scapple
- Mapul
- MindMap (Chrome extension)
- Stormboard (not a mind mapping application)
10 Effective Mind Mapping Software Tools
Questionable recommendations:
- Bubbl.us
- Coggle
- Spiderscribe
- Stormboard (not a mind mapping application)
24 Essential Mind Mapping and Brainstorming Tools
Questionable recommendations:
- Bubbl.us
- SpiderScribe
- Coggle
- Text2MindMap
- Popplet
- WiseMapping
- Scapple
- LucidChart (not a mind mapping application)
- Mapul
- MindApp
15 Best Brainstorming And Mind-Mapping Tech Tools For Every Creative Mind
Questionable recommendations:
- Bubbl.us
- Coggle
- LucidChart (not a mind mapping application)
- Mapul
- Coggle
- Scapple
- SpiderScribe
- Popplet
- MindMap (Chrome extension)
The mental trick that can help you brainstorm your best ideas
The only mind mapping applications mentioned are Bubbl.us and Coggle. Seriously?
To be completely fair, these articles DO recommend some excellent desktop- and web-based mind mapping tools that are suitable for business. But the good is mixed in with the bad. How is a busy executive supposed to make sense of all these options? These articles don’t help.
In addition, these programs and apps DO meet the needs of certain people – casual users of mind mapping and students come to mind. But the websites these articles are published on are, for the most part, more business oriented. Shouldn’t their product recommendations be focused accordingly?
What am I going to do about this problem?
During 2016, one of my goals is to produce and publish several mind mapping software list articles on business websites that provide a usable list of the best mind mapping software programs and apps – for business. It’s time to counteract these lazy listicle articles with some valuable information!
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