For those of you trying to keep up with all the new mobile social-networking services that are springing up (like MocoSpace, Mig33, Aka-Aki, MeetMoi, Mobiluck, Imity, Zyb, etc., etc.), here’s one more to add to the pile: Zannel. Launched quietly in August, it already has more than 500,000 mobile visitors a month, says founder and CTO Braxton Woodham. Formerly the CTO of Infospace Mobile, he brought his core team over to Zannel, which raised $6 million in a series-A round from US Venture Partners and Palomar Ventures last May.
Zannel is like a multimedia Twitter. You can microblog and send out short group messages from your mobile phone to your other friends on Zannel. And, as with Twitter, anyone who wants to keep up with your doings can elect to be notified every time you post a new update. But it is really designed for people who want to communicate through pictures and videos, which you can upload from your phone and send out with a short message. “What we are trying to focus on is pulling media into messaging,” says Woodham. If you send a video or picture to someone whose phone cannot handle it, they get a link instead that they can use to download the file later when they are on a computer.
Each picture or video can generate a little microblog hanging off it, complete with comments from your friends or admirers. You can choose to make your profile and conversations either private or public. All your posts also live on Zannel’s regular Website. But Zannel is not so much trying to create its own separate social network as it is trying to tap into your existing ones. For instance, it lets you import your Gmail or Hotmail contacts right from the WAP browser on your phone. And you can put a Zannel widget on your blog or MySpace page that constantly refreshes every time you add something new. (A Facebook widget is coming soon).
As with most social networking services, people right now seem to be using Zannel for hooking up and even porn. That’s what you get when you encourage people to upload pictures. Those are not the only things they are doing with Zannel, however. You can also find people sharing their travel videos, or asking other Zannel users what kind of shoes they should buy.
I think the embedded widget is screwing up the TC homepage…
the porn should boost their traffic!
according to compete.com rankings:
twitter – 3,683
mocospace – 9,355
zannel – 69,206
I’m actually surprised at how well this service works. I just signed up and took a 5 second video on my EnV. I texted it to my Zannel address and it’s already up there. There was surprisingly no lag time. Maybe that’s Verizon hard at work. It’s pretty cool stuff. I’ll probably use Twitter a lot less now.
This is another application we are building for facebook. When we announce this application we are going to use the term “Viral Surfboard” to get more publicity, since social graph worked so well–my mother was very proud.
Just how many mobile/micro-blogging type sites are out there now?
too many, joe! that being said, i like this site. i heard about it thru daily reel which they seem to have some sort of deal with. (i love you daily reel!). the video works very well on my pearl.
I joined Zannel a few weeks ago and love it. I’m really excited that there is going to be a Facebook widget. I think once my friends see the widget on my Facebook they’ll sign up too, and that’s when Zannel will be really fun.
I will never understand why people like Twitter. At least this has photos and video. Definitely a step up from the Twitter Twits.
Potential problem! After I signed up on Zannel, I was assigned an email for me to post mobile pictures and videos. The email is my unsername plus a number. It’s very easy to figure out. If someone else konws this number and start posting porns on my Zannel, I’ll be in trouble. This is not a secure way to post mobile contents. You have to have a better way to verify that the sender is actually the user.
Good point Jim. We will be up with a mobile aggregator soon, and this will give us the ability to validate the sender. In the meantime, we thought the pincode approach was best given the inherent ecosystem limitations.
Thanks for the feedback,
Braxton Woodham
Zannel CTO
I moderated a discussion at South by Southwest in March that included Zannel CEO Adam Zbar as one of the panelists. I was impressed when Adam showed off the service then, and it looks like they’ve made some nice improvements over the past several months.
This is actually kind of interesting. I can see using this to share a visual moment with friends. Much more useful than Twitter, which I must admit, I never quite “got”.
http://www.Congoo.com- Congoo News Communities
Tried this service out for the first time recently, although I had checked it out in the past as a spectator. It works very well and I’ve noted a slew of feautures/functionality improvements. Echoing previous comments, definitely an upgrade over some other services.
It looks like a less-sophisticated version of kyte.tv , with a lot more softcore porn. Kudos to whoever does their marketing.
For a complete non-techie like myself, Zannel was easy to sign up for and instantly addictive. I love how it easily uploads videos and pictures and how it comes without the clutter of other networking sites. It’s not high maintenance like I’ve found other similar sites to be.
Must I say it again?
IT’S NOT MICROSOFT! IT’S CRAP!
http://fakestev...er.blogspot.com
Joe – there are several of us in this space, and our service (3guppies) is quite similar to Zannel. Being in the space, I think it is important to add to the article that characterizing our services as a “multimedia Twitter” is, though technically accurate, too simple. Adding the multimedia dimension takes the Twitter concept to a different level, and also starts bridging the gap between twitter itself and the value proposition of social networking on the web.
Pictures and video from a phone can say so much more than a simple sms. But the value of that media is the greatest in the moment when it is taken. Even just hours later, the value has diminished. Being able to get this personal media off the phone, out to friends’ phones, is a game changer and unique to mobile. The ability to express yourself and connect (utilizing media) is a major component of social networking on the web.
Our services extend the existing social networks in a natural way for mobile. And technically, it is a very difficult thing to do. This is why Twitter can’t just flip the switch and turn on pictures and videos. Our company in particular has really focused on being able to deliver media to any handset (over 1200 handset/carrier combinations, including Verizon), which has taken years of hard work and many many dollars.
jim why would anyone steal your page login and post “pornos” on there? and why would you get in trouble for it? i must have some filter on my site because i am not able to see this porn you all speak of on zannel. someone send me a link!
john your site is interesting but i dont use myspace. are you a partner of zannel?
Oh everyone is “surprised at how well this service works”.
I was going to give Zannel a try but this company has just lost my confidence by adding spam comments. It might work somewhere else, but I think TC readers know when they see spam comment.
Anybody worried that the majority of users look angry and sketchy? Is the early adopter base going to scare off mainstream participants?
Ah Porn. Porn makes technology better, doesn’t it?
Haven’t really done much w/ twitter or other social networking sites save for Facebook mainly b/c my Luddite friends aren’t on any of them but I’m always hoping they branch out once things get easier to use. Data plan $$$ seem to be a barrier w/ these types of mobile services (SMS down, pix to go!). What IS the going rate for data plans anyway? But TC Reader, have some faith! Check it out yourself before writing it off as a purist (or spam-police). =)
Porn and sex always sells.
http://vidsonly.blogspot.com
Kim – you can post the moblog widget on a blog site, or any other page that accepts flash and html. And no, we are not affiliated with Zannel.
I think Zannel is great. I am Braxton’s mom, but I am not biased — just proud of him. I can even upload (download?) pictures to Zannel! And I am completely technologically inept (as you can see). I don’t like the porno, though. It’s not “mom” proof.