It seems a given that mobile social networking is going to be “the next big thing”, but squinting at tiny text is still a pain on today’s phones. To deal with this issue, Blabnote, a British startup that is currently in private beta, has created what may be the world’s first “vocal social network.”
To login to the network, you simply call Blabnote from your phone, which uses caller ID to match you to your profile. From there, you can vocally enter any number of commands. For example, if I wanted to create a group for TechCrunch fans, I might say, “Create Group called ‘Team TechCrunch’”. Members can be added by saying, “add Mike and Mark”, and you can send messages to group members in a similar fashion.
Blabnote has no shortage of obstacles to overcome, to put it mildly. For one, the entire system is going to rely on voice recognition, which isn’t exactly a perfected technology. Imagine creating a very personal voice message and sending it to an ex-girlfriend on accident - the setup is ripe for disaster. And should you get sick of talking (and listening), you’re out of luck: there is no web management interface, though Blabnote says it will provide an API for third parties.
Blabnote could be a useful organization and notification tool for established groups, like soccer teams or clubs. But if it aspires to become a large social network, this company is going to be teetering perilously close to the DeadPool.
“I love You”–that’s enough.
Whether it fails or not - i love the fact that companies are willing to take risks like this…because this is most definitely, a risk.
No one uses their phone for actually speaking to one another anymore. Fail.
do you have your tickets for the failtrain? good, and after that you have a ride on the failboat.
Hey, Jason Kincad.
I’m hard of hearing. I spend a year creating tradesecret search engine.
Would you like to see very first startup search engine with voice?
Google, Yahoo, live search engine doesn’t talk back to you. I tired to create something bigger than Cuill and Blakko. Failed.
This has about as much chance of being adopted by the masses as video comments on blogs.
COOOOOL. but what is it for?
what problem does it solve?
“what problem does it solve?”
Web 2.0 concepts don’t have to solve a problem. They have to be like pet rocks.
“But if it aspires to become a large social network, this company is going to be teetering perilously close to the DeadPool.”
http://www.sitespaces.net/blog.....&11631
Do what MySpace did. I would if spam weren’t illegal. You can get some serious trouble from that when you’re based in California. We can’t exactly roll the clock back to 2003 though can we?
They are in the UK though, they could get away with it still. It’s the UK demographic that sucks. It’s less valuable than ours, and the other US networks. 60% of our users are from So Cal.
Something has been definitely misunderstood here: “mobile social networking” does not mean at all voice, however our stereotype on „mobile” is an old fashioned phone.
Wow! Thanks for this!! A few notes though:
1: Voice rec tech has come a LONG way and is a squillion times more accurate than it ever was
2: It should be obvious that we have checks and confirmations in place to stop you sending ‘i love you’ to your boss!!!!
3: Prepare to love us. Blabnote is ACE!!!!!!
Enjoy the sunshine!
cheers
j
When I read the TechCrunch post for this, I said this is a sure bet for the deadpool.
Now that I visited their website, it seems to make a lot more sense. If ‘Blabnote’ can solve the ‘conference call’ problem many of us face when travelling, or can really give me the possibility to send a voice mail to several people with just one call, great.
I don’t quite see the business model and any start up should treat their website as a business, but if they can highlight their USP strongly enough, then this can be a winner.
Good luck guys!
France attacked in Poland… http://blogs.lexpress.fr/virtuel/
Nice concept but they have forgotten to take practical considerations while making this site. They should make a neat application or add on with this. It would work better.
Wow, clearly this is useful…not.
Great at least someone is thinking beyond boring Social sites. Social is the Future.. Good progress by Blabnote. I am going to post update about it on my site http://www.hurricanesoftwares.com
Isn’t it fairly easy to spoof the caller id?
Wouldn’t this mean you could screw around with your friend’s stuff since they claim no usernames or passwords are required?
Sounds a bit scary to me.
I think social network is a bit of a misnomer here. This looks like a mobile application / utility. Very odd not to have a web interface, wonder if the voice recognition stuff really is as good as they say.. if so, could be useful.
I’m intrigued by this application. I have a number of friends who are either completely blind, or blind enough so that seeing a screen of any size is extremely difficult. I could see this as a useful social networking tool for this population. Also, there are a lot of people who don’t use computers but who would like to keep in touch. Not everyone’s comfortable with computers or wants one at home. I see this as computer-free social networking that’s voice-activated, exactly like a telephone only with more scope. Bravo! I’m sending a link to a lot of people I know. Hope it lasts!
One of the wildest lines from a beta homepage. ever.
“The whole thing is just beautifully easy to use and concedes inferiority only to the lingering sparkle of an eroding afternoon daydream.”
An interesting tool for blind people.
Seems quite nice idea
@7, I wonder too, what does it solve and what purpose?.
Nat
http://www.workersinc.com
Interesting. If they design it right, could become the next-gen podcast.
Waste of time.
Man…
If only I had a buck for every time some moron used the term “voice recognition” when they meant “speech recognition”!!
Voice recognition is a biometric technique for distinguishing your voice from mine. You don’t have to say anything intelligible to do that… just grunt.
Speech recognition refers to computer translation of the spoken word into something store-able like text. Grunt and speech recognition software comes up with nothing.
When will people get it right (or pay me for their stupidity!) ?
@Charles
According to Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, they can be used interchangeably. Nice rant though.
NickeyD , in what reality are you based?
I beg to differ. Spoink.com has been offering a toll free voice-enabled social network and blogging site for the past 2 months as a private ‘beta’ and last we launched as a public ‘beta’. Calls are toll free and they accept audio, video pictures and text via email, IM, web and of course dial up to their toll free number 1-888-8-spoink. They also offer a multi-user blog environment for events, families and friends.
SPoink is just a voice blogging service like that which a billion other providers offer. i could list 10 right now! its nothing like blabnote at all….dont try and jump on our bandwagon, build your own!
blabnote is WITHOUT DOUBT the first application of it’s kind.
Hey to the boys from blabnote in Liverpool,hope you succeed as i’m just down the road in Birmingham and just weeks from my startup launch myself.
By the way are you bootstrapped with ur own cash like us or do you have out side funding ??
I was about to say it is heading to the dead pool, before I read “But if it aspires to become a large social network, this company is going to be teetering perilously close to the DeadPool.”.
Anyway, still, as it can be good for blind people, so if the company could target the markets well and get enough funding from government grants and charity, the site may still well survive.
Cool idea, but I wonder how popular will it be, the commands will have to be very limited and also how good is the voice recognition system?
I have never met a system that was working perfect.
Congratulations and Good luck to you, I hope you succeed!
Seems like the founders haven’t tried voice recognition on production phones out in the market. If they did, they would have trashed the idea in the bud.
Besides that, there’s a lot more that a mobile can offer to social networking, how a client with limited abilities succeed in this highly competitive market is beyond me.
By the way, I have gone through a couple of mobile social networks out there and they are nowhere near my expectations. So I decided to list down a few scenarios
http://sachendra.wordpress.com.....l-network/