British stealth startup Zkatter is launching a real-time microblogging service in the next few months that could be a hit. Similar in theory to Twitter, Zkatter asks users “What do you see now?” vs. Twitter’s “What are you doing?”
The service, which has been in development since 2008, will allow anybody to broadcast and archive ‘live moments’ comprising location, media (image, video and text) to ‘friends only’ or ‘the public’ which can then be discovered instantly via search and friends time-lines. Zkatter’s focus is towards capturing information that you physically see live which offers a interesting addition to the real-time space.
Zkatter, which has received $1.5 million in Series A funding, is also developing iPhone and Android apps to work in conjunction with the standalone site, with the platform updated in real-time across all devices. So if you post an update on your iPhone, it will automatically show on the site. And Zkatter will be integrated with Facebook and Twitter, so you can publish you updates to both social networks as well. There are additional features to the site but this is the general idea of what the Zkatter will be able to do.
We took a little test run of the site, and it’s impressive. Not only is the user-interface easy to use, but the seamless real-time integration between mobile and the web. But Zkatter will still face competition from Twitter and the plethora of content-sharing Twitter applications, like TwitPic or TwitVid, which also let you broadcast “live moments.” The site is also similar to DailyBooth.
Zkatter’s founder Matt Hagger tells me that there is still a good amount of development that needs to be done for the site but he’s confident that Zkatter will find a place in the real-time space. There’s no doubt that the rise of real-time streams is fundamentally altering the way we communicate and interact with one another, which is why we are holding our second RealTime CrunchUp on November 20th. You can buy tickets for the event here. Startups will be launching their latest real-time products and we are bringing together a host of notable panelists to share their thoughts on the realtime stream.