One of the issues when you create something simple, easy to use, and phenomenally popular is that there will invariably be some folks who come along and say that it was their idea first.
Naturally, that's started to happen to Twitter. Earlier this month, a patent lawsuit was filed against Twitter on behalf of a Texas-based company called TechRadium, which has a patent to "allow a group administrator or 'message author' to originate a single message that will be delivered simultaneously via multiple communication gateways to members of a group of 'message subscribers' over e-mail, text message, or another platform.
More specifically, TechRadium's technology has been applied to a product called Iris, which is designed to be able to send out mass messages for emergency response purposes. The lawsuit claims that Twitter's service amounts to "offering for sale or use, or selling or using these products without license or authority from TechRadium."
TechRadium claims it has "suffered actual and consequential damages," the suit reads, but isn't very specific beyond that. "Plaintiff does not yet know the full extent of such infringement and such extent cannot be ascertained except by discovery and special accounting." As for damages, the company seeks "an amount not less than the maximum amount permitted by law."
I'm not really sure what TechRadium's aim is here, because, as Wired put it, similarities between the two companies seem like "a ridiculously obvious use of modern technology." Remember when "microblogging" wasn't just Twitter, but also Jaiku (sold to Google and effectively shelved), Pownce (sold to Six Apart and shut down), and Plurk (still around, but we haven't heard a peep out of it recently)? There have also been, in the mass-messaging space, Yahoo's , Google's ill-fated Dodgeball, and Microsoft's still-experimental Vine--which also has an emergency-management angle.
And beyond that, the concept of short, pithy messages is nothing new. (Telegraphs? The short-form diaries of John Quincy Adams? Those funny banners with short messages on them that you sometimes see flying behind propeller planes at the beach?) My guess is that TechRadium is hoping the language in its patent is vague enough so that, at the least, it can get some recognition or (less likely) compensation.
So it's no shock that Twitter is going to get slapped with repeated accusations of "hey, we got there first." The same thing happened to Facebook, a far more complicated and less open-ended service, when the founders of ConnectU, a failed social network that had originated around the same time at Harvard University, claimed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had pilfered their business plan in creating his now-billion-dollar company.
And, as Wired points out, Twitter is well aware of this: leaked internal documents say that "We will be sued for patent infringement, repeatedly and often." Earlier this summer, the company hired its first general counsel right out of Google's legal ranks.
As for TechRadium, unless they can basically prove that Twitter's founders snuck into their offices and went hogwild with a photocopier and some stolen documents, this is one case that probably won't get off the ground.
The new Facebook inbox.
(Credit: Facebook)Well, according to a post on the official Facebook blog, the social network's messaging feature is getting a much-needed revamp from its cruddy, bare-bones state. Select users have the new in-box now; it'll be rolling out to everyone else over the next few weeks.
The catch is that there aren't actually very many new features, just a better presentation of existing ones for the most part. You'll now be able to accomplish such technological marvels as filter your in-box for unread messages (wow!) and flag unwanted messages as spam.
There's also a more clearly delineated division between messages from friends on your friends list and updates from brands' "fan pages" that previously all went into the same in-box.
Some more updates are on the way. "Over time, we plan to migrate messages from Groups and Events to Updates as well, so you have more control over the communication you receive," the post by Facebook's Scott Marlette read. That means the message from the guy who just reconnected with you on Facebook after not speaking to you since the fourth-grade spider-in-the-lunchbox incident will have a different destination than the message to all guests of next week's Bocce ball tournament.
So, no, Facebook probably won't be replacing your e-mail client yet. But more importantly--it's prettier. Oh, and you can flag spam now--that's important.
(Credit:
MySpace)
It's about time: MySpace's formerly desktop-only instant-messaging client, MySpaceIM, is going in-browser. The company is beta-testing it with Canadian users but plans to roll it out to other English-speaking countries (including the U.S.) over the next few weeks and then to other regions in the following months.
To be fair, MySpaceIM is already accessible from the Web-based Meebo.
The new MySpaceIM, anchored at the bottom of the browser window in its own toolbar, takes a format quite similar to Facebook Chat. It can also pop out into its own browser window. You can, in addition, IM with MySpace users who aren't on your friends list, something that I don't quite understand the benefits of, or you can toggle the privacy settings to always be "invisible" or to only accept IMs from people you've already approved as friends.
The News Corp.-owned MySpace isn't ditching its downloadable desktop IM client, though. The two are interoperable, the company said.
My experience has been that many Facebook users have simply turned off Facebook Chat. But with a younger, more entertainment-focused feel, MySpace may have better luck with in-browser IM. And it's a strategic tactic, too: Having lost the membership-count battle to Facebook months ago, MySpace is trying to increase its edge in user engagement.
To that end, it started letting its members edit photos on the site last week.
Web-based chat company Meebo has announced that it now supports MySpace and Facebook's instant-messaging services. That adds to a lineup that already includes Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and ICQ.
"Today's announcement reflects Meebo's long-time goal of offering open access to all IM and social-networking users, as well as providing them with the best IM experience possible," co-founder and CEO Seth Sternberg said in a release. "People have friends across a variety of different social networks, and Meebo is a place where they can come for real-time social interactions with these friends, at any time."
MySpace launched MySpaceIM last year, and this year Facebook launched Facebook Chat. Neither has been a wild hit, but adding them to Meebo's arsenal certainly gives the ad-supported service access to a bigger audience. A number of other universal IM clients--like Trillian, Adium, and Digsby--already support either or both of them.
Meebo also has launched a "Community IM" project to power instant messaging on other social sites like Flixster and MyYearbook.
Web-based chat company Meebo has partnered with Universal Music Group to bring ad-supported music videos to the service.
As a kickoff, Universal artists Kanye West, Ludacris, and the Killers will be featured on the Meebo home page. In return, Meebo chat rooms will be embedded on Universal artists' sites.
I'm still not quite sure why a chat start-up needs Kanye videos when Mr. West and his many pairs of sunglasses are already plastered all over the rest of the Internet, but I'll let that rest for now.
In the past year, Meebo has launched an application programming interface, partnered with media brands such as Hearst to power embeddable chat rooms, and launched a "Community IM" initiative for social sites.
But Meebo is just the latest of many video partners for Universal. Universal has made investments in Imeem, a music playlist-based social network, and Buzznet, a music fan community hub.
Earlier this year, the label struck a music video deal with Last.fm, a music-focused social network owned by CBS Interactive (which publishes CNET News) and Kiwibox, a community site for teens. Like the major other labels, it has a stake in MySpace Music.
Universal is also reported to be working on a "Hulu-like" site for its music video content. There's no word if that's still on the books, now that music video portal MTV Music has launched.
Web-based chat and IM company Meebo has announced a few updates to its "Community IM" chat project, which it announced this summer as a means to power live chat features on partner sites. More specifically, there are more partners on board to add to the original eight.
According to CEO and co-founder Seth Sternberg, putting Meebo on partner sites will mean that it has a reach of more than 70 million people worldwide. Eventually, there will be ads placed on the chat app, and revenue will be split between Meebo and the partner in question.
As was the plan this summer, movie site Flixster will be the first to roll out Community IM support. Meebo CEO and co-founder Seth Sternberg said that this will be a snail-paced launch. "It's going to do a small rollout over time with a bunch of different partners, mostly because of scaling concerns," he explained. "We wouldn't want to roll it out to everyone all at once and then have the system collapse."
Sternberg said that the company has been smart with its expansion, given the fact that live chat takes a lot of hardware power, and high server costs have been cited as one of the factors that could doom a hyped start-up. "Meebo serves like 35 to 40 million unique (visits) a month right now, on what I think is 150 or less servers. For the number of uniques that we have, our server count is very, very low," he explained. "The server count is certainly going to grow with the Community IM...obviously that's going to put one heck of a strain on the back-end system, but that said, we're being very, very careful."
The current roster of Community IM partners, an array of blog sites, small social networks, and gaming sites, includes: AddictingCames, Bleacher Report, DanceJam, Dhingana, Fanpop, Flixster, GlobalGrind, IBeatYou, MyYearbook, OrangeShark, Piczo, PerfSpot, SparkArt, Sugar Inc., Tagged, UGame.net, Yaari, Zinch, and Zorpia.
Meebo debuted an ad network early this year and opened up the API for its "Meebo Rooms" group chat app.
Let's say Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama sent every one of those "here's my V.P." text messages from his own cell phone. And let's say his mean, nasty carrier charged him 10 cents for each one. According to Nielsen's numbers, his bill would've been $290,000--that's because the statistics firm says that the SMS campaign stunt reached 2.9 million people.
The company's Nielsen Mobile division did the math, monitoring approximately 40,000 SMS short-code lines in the U.S. and coming up with the final tally of 2.9 million.
"The VP message was sent in the late hours of Friday night and is, by many accounts, the single largest mobile marketing event in the U.S. to date," a release from Nielsen read. The initiative has been moderately criticized because it ultimately didn't work: the press reported that Obama had chosen Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware as his vice presidential pick before anyone had had the chance to hit the "send" button on that fateful text message.
But Nielsen says that doesn't matter.
"While much has been said of the timing and the scoop by news outlets, Obama's V.P. text-message still ranks as one of the most important text messages even sent and one of the most successful brand engagements using mobile media," Nielsen's report read, adding that an estimated 116 million American use text messaging actively.
"The value of the message goes far beyond the 26 words and 2.9 million recipients. Here, Obama branded himself as cutting edge, inflated the already enormous press attention paid to his V.P. pick and further established a list of supporters' most coveted form of contact: their cell phone numbers."
European users of Twitter can no longer receive text message updates on their cell phones, in a temporary move designed to keep the start-up's telecom bills down.
Twitterers can still use its U.K. number, +44 762 480 1423, to send updates to the site. But that number will no longer deliver text-message updates back to users, and recommends that they use the Twitter mobile site or a third-party client like TwitterBerry, Twitterrific, TwitterMail, or Cellity.
"When you send one message to Twitter and we send it to ten followers, you aren't charged ten times--that's because we've been footing the bill," a post on Twitter's blog explained. "When we launched our free SMS service to the world, we set the clock ticking. As the service grew in popularity, so too would the price."
The company has managed to find "sustainable" text-message billing agreements in the U.S., Canada, and India--the other three countries in which Twitter has enabled SMS updates--so those countries will not be affected by the change. The blog post explained that Twitter is continuing to negotiate with mobile operators to make it possible for SMS numbers to exist around the world, but hasn't gotten there yet.
"Even with a limit of 250 messages received per week, it could cost Twitter about $1,000 per user, per year to send SMS outside of Canada, India, or the U.S.," the post explained. "It makes more sense for us to establish fair billing arrangements with mobile operators than it does to pass these high fees on to our users."
In one of his recent--and subsequently parodied--attack ads on U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, Republican John McCain accused his rival of being too much of a celebrity and not enough of a political leader.
That was what I first thought of upon learning that the Obama campaign has instituted text-message alerts to inform supporters of the candidate's choice for vice presidential running mate.
So this way, if you're OMG OMG TOTALLY DESPERATE to learn whom Obama has chosen for his veep, you can sign up and learn the moment it's announced--even before anybody Twitters it. The timing seems a little bit awkward, considering the whole Paris Hilton ad debacle. Text-message alerts for Obama's vice president assumes the sort of eager anticipation generally reserved for the second or two of Best Picture envelope-opening at the Oscars, or the naming of the Brangelina brood's latest member. You know, celebrity.
On the other hand, this could net the Obama campaign quite a few more e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers for its Rolodex of supporters. And text message initiative like this is an appeal to the Britney generation, the hordes of young supporters who have grown up drinking a highly caffeinated blend of AIM and the E! network, and who don't see the slightest problem with applying the rhetoric and strategy of celebrity infatuation to national politics. That's the crowd who made Obama into a "celebrity."
And, come to think about it, if TMZ-inspired campaigning has reinvigorated public interest in the nation's future, I don't see anything wrong with that. But I'll pass on the text message, Barack. I can wait until it shows up on Google News.
A look at Flixster, with a Meebo IM window in the bottom right corner.
(Credit: Meebo/Flixster)Web-based instant-messaging company Meebo has taken a new step forward: bringing its IM technology to partner sites. This fall, Meebo will start powering IM "buddy lists" on a handful of social-media sites so that you can chat with your friends who use those services. They're calling it Community IM.
Right now, the partners announced are the MC Hammer-backed DanceJam, movie fan site Flixster, teen social sites MyYearbook and Piczo, MTV Networks' AddictingGames, SparkArt, women's blog network Sugar, and Tagged.
Altogether, that's more than 54 million users worldwide for Meebo, according to ComScore. But that list will get longer before the service launches, co-founder and CEO Seth Sternberg told me earlier this week. Developers are welcome to check it out now.
The technology itself will undoubtedly remind you of Facebook Chat, the instant-messaging feature that the social network launched earlier this year. It's controlled through a menu bar at the bottom of the site, and will let members know which of their friends are also logged on. The catch is that the window can also pop out, and you can migrate your buddy lists from the likes of Flixster and AddictingGames into the broader Meebo client. Ad revenue will be shared.
Meebo developed the service in response to customer requests, Sternberg told me. And he said it's much-needed, considering traditional IM services often don't reflect all the people with whom we socialize online. "IM is the last communication paradigm that's closed," he told me, and said that Meebo's thinking was to "create one open, federated IM network." It's based on the Jabber open-source platform.
So why make the announcement months before the launch? Sternberg explained that it's mostly to raise awareness and build up interest. But in addition, he said, it's going to be a big project to launch, and he's hoping that engineers looking for jobs will take notice and send their resumes his way.
