MSearchGroove

Fring, Phling, Pringo…you know the scene is really hotting up when you can list some mobile Web 2.0 companies and their offers rhyme! (If you’re confused, then watch this space for analysis and deep-dive podcasts from Peggy. It’s part of her brief to monitor social media companies above and under the radar, but she’s also passionate about her work, so we count on learning a lot over the coming weeks.)

In the meantime, here’s a quick run-down of five of the newest kids on the block (via Webware.com). Each is super-cool in their own way, but don’t expect more than buzz until they each tackle usability issues. That’s why I speak out for voice-enabled social networking (no pun intended).

BLUEPULSE: Mobile only site Bluepulse has messaging at its core with a single inbox showing status updates, messages, friend requests and all the usual offerings you would expect from a social networking site. Posting photos and videos from your phone is also on offer, but there are some usability issues that need ironing out. No drop down menus or predictive text to quickly choose from and the all important click-to-call feature is still being developed - surely voice must be as integral to mobile social networking as messaging.

TRUTAP: More usability issues are uncovered when we look at U.K. based Trutap. Available on AT&T in the U.S., users can chat with other Trutapers all they like (although the all-in-one IM service is limited to MSN, Yahoo, AIM and ICQ), but photos and posts are re-directed through partners such as Blooger and Flickr. (Peggy adds: Since meeting with David Whitewood, Co-Founder & Global VP Business Development, at a recent Mobile Monday I’ve got this one high on my radar…)

WHRRL & RUMMBLE: Location enhanced social networking from Whrrl (LBS application) and Rummble (WAP site) give users real-time location information to connect mobile social networking with real life networking (a novel idea!). Users can broadcast and search for friends in their locality as well as post reviews and photos of places they have visited, geotagging them on their site. This functionality is set to take off by utilising the key characteristic of the mobile communication - mobility.

UTTERZ: Voice is one of the main propositions of this mobile user generated content offering. Users can match their voice ‘Utterz’ with text and photos by calling a clearing house and Utterz does the rest, autoposting onto sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Although you can manage and edit postings online, there are some usability issues that make mobile account management tricky.

While all five of these deliver a degree of social networking conformity as well as individuality in their service offering, the Utterz proposition stands out to me as most interesting. The voice functionality it offers may ironically open the door for voice to make a cellular comeback in revenue terms. Further proof of this comes in the form of an announcement from Spinvox (via an email release today). The provider of voice-to-screen messaging has beefed up its offering which now lets users post to their Facebook, Twitter and Jaiku (the Finish network recently acquired by Google) sites by simply speaking into their mobile handset. While this may limit what you can post and raises usability issues of its own, it has the huge benefit of making every handset instantly mobile social network enabled. It will also mean that language is going full circle - does anyone know how to pronounce txt spk?

Peggy adds: I spent the day with Spinvox at their U.K. HQ a few months ago and had the chance to chat about company vision with Daniel Doulton, co-founder and VP of marketing, development and strategy. He’s Web 2.0 personified and naturally this Facebook announcement (then under NDA) was the focus of our discussion. But he also had some intriguing ideas about the intersection between mobile search and mobile social networking. I’m indebted to Jane Henry, Spinvox Global PR Director, for connecting me with Daniel and promising to pin him down to elaborate on the role of speech-to-text in mobile Web 2.0 scenarios. Let’s just say we’re “talking ’bout a revolution.”

• Posted in
• Web 2.0, Usability, Mobile Social Networking, Multimodal Search, Mobile Search

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