Twttr
Talk about saying "Hey, I thought of that." Odeo, the makers of odeo/play (a podcasting aggregator-type service) apparently released some new software recently, called twttr. This new software appears to be similar to DodgeBall, which Google bought up some time ago. I've discussed a similar service more than once with Resolution Software employees.The thing that I find interesting about the service is that, well, it's almost there, but missing two things. As a user of the service, you can send SMS messages to their SMS number (40404), and from there, anyone in your group will get it. Imagine being able to let all of your friends / contacts know that you were "Hungry", or "Headed to Lunch", with one fell swoop. That's what the service does. It also archives all messages on the website, so you can login and see a running history / timeline of the messages between yourself and your friends. You can also view the messages from friends of your friends.
Although it's something of an interesting software / Web 2.0 widget, I don't really understand (1) The target audience and (2) How they're going to make money. Business fundamentals.
Most users will not want their messages archived and publicly viewable. This is, unfortunately, going to keep many from using it, I would think. Additionally, I would think that the ability to specify different groups of contacts. For instance, I might want to message all of my employees that I'm "Headed to Lunch", or "In a Meeting". It might be useful to have my friends, and wife, in a separate group, that I can message "Time for a Beer", or "Headed to the Lubbock Symphony". The two wouldn't have the same context of messages. Anyone using the service would need to have only one context of contacts, the way that the software is currently setup.
The second issue, how they are going to make money, is always a problem. The FAQ says very clearly that there won't be any charges for the basic services. So, there might be charges in the future. But how do you charge someone for sending and receiving SMS messages? Their phone provider does a decent job of that already. I suppose they could embed advertising in the messages some how, but that would be done BEST if it was somehow tied to GPS. However, that's no trivial task.
I would think that they've got a few issues to work out before they have any sort of mainstream adoption. And I would think that the simple fact that they have two products, neither of which are likely generating any money (last I checked, Odeo was free).
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