April 1, 2007 9:01 AM PDT

Going ga-ga with UltraSoundd

by Josh Lowensohn
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(Credit: CNET Networks)

We just got the word on a new social network called UltraSoundd. It's aimed at unborn children who want to blog their lives and post pictures and videos of their dwelling space to share with friends. Other social networks have similar efforts, but with their parents managing the profile and posting updates. Ultrasoundd lets the kid do all the work. The site just secured a $2 million round of Series A funding from Gerber's parent company Novartis.

To set up an Ultrasoundd account, parents need simply register with the site and download a small, 130KB Java application to their mobile phones. Once installed, an expecting mother just needs to duct tape her phone to her stomach, and the program will run automatically--sending blog updates to the child's profile page. Landlines work for users without mobile phones, but the parent will need to dial in manually.

We ran into a few problems with this service. For one thing, our photos were turning out dark. Like really dark. We were also getting a ton of spam from other Ultrasoundd members with garbled messages and friends requests that the service calls Amnioticalls. We also got a text message that said "0/?/womb RDY 2 PRTY?"

Ultrasoundd is an innovative service; we just don't think it's ready yet. Things just feel a little premature.

Josh Lowensohn writes for Webware.com, CNET's blog about Web applications and services. E-mail Josh, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Josh.
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love it. happy april fools
by srotman April 1, 2007 12:03 PM PDT
nice spoof!

but here's another kicker. i actually checked out the url and no one owns it!

kinda surprising. usually when you hear about stories on april fools, the source at least buys the domain to put up a fake page...
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Josh is a cheapskate (n/t)
by caroline.mccarthy April 1, 2007 12:13 PM PDT
no pun intended right?
by Josh.Lowensohn April 1, 2007 1:04 PM PDT
Please tell me the "kicker" reference wasn't a maternal innuendo. ;)

Yeah we were thinking about buying it...and by "we" I mean me. Believe me, I went through many possible names and picked the one that wasn't a squat site.
I thought it was real
by DogNation April 3, 2007 12:13 PM PDT
I use a site called: http://www.babysfirstsite.com to keep track of all my baby related stuff. I actually thought the above site was a good idea. Well until the taping the phone to the belly thing. Maybe someday.
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