Under the Radar: Mobile messaging and media sharing
In the Messaging and Sharing track at Under the Radar 2007, four evolving players hawk their wares. I recently covered two of them, Trutap and Utterz in the mobile social networking space.
Heysan (CNET review) is a free mobile instant-messaging service that connects to major IM networks, including Windows Live Messenger (previously MSN), Yahoo Messenger, AIM, ICQ, and Google Talk. The wholly Web-based service is roughly modeled on Meebo, with its single buddy list and tabbed conversations. Heysan is ad-supported.
Trutap is a downloadable app that aggregates instant messaging, picture messaging, photo uploading, social network access, e-mail, and SMS in a single communications hub. The biggest announcement is that Trutap is now out of closed beta and available in public beta. In the U.S., AT&T users can try out Trutap, with Sprint coming soon.
Utterz, like Trutap, takes on multiple modes of communication and media sharing. It assumes that its users have multiple social network and media accounts, and provides a service to push your voice, text, or photo "utters" to multiple locations on the Web: a blog service, Twitter, or friend network, such as Facebook. Utterz is now out of beta.
yoMedia sees itself primarily as a video delivery company. Registered users can upload videos, which yoMedia will convert for the Internet, 3GP cell phones, or even TV. In addition to pushing your own content to the PC or phone, users can discover others' video contributions on yoMedia's site.
