OverBlog, a leading blog platform in Europe with 3 million registered users and over 34 million uniques (according to comScore), has just arrived in the U.S. And it’s kind of awesome. The entire platform has been totally re-developed from scratch over the past 18 months, and, ironically, it’s the U.S. audience who’s the first to have access to the new platform. (Current European users will get the new version on Monday).
So what makes OverBlog so interesting? In addition to serving as a traditional blog, it aggregates your content from social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, etc. all in one place. Plus, you’ll soon be able to livestream directly from your mobile phone to your blog. And all of this takes place in real-time.
You may remember that the OverBlog acquired an early stage Palo Alto-based startup called Timekiwi back in January of this year. Timekiwi was developing a way for users to create Facebook-esque timelines of content, also by aggregating your social media activity. Explains OverBlog founder Frederic Montagnon (also the Director of Strategy at ebuzzing, the company that owns OverBlog), “we acquired Timekiwi because they were working on the same concept, and we wanted to secure we were alone on the market with this concept.”
With the relaunch, the timeline-esque theme is just one of over hundred free themes that OverBlog offers, however, so you can choose a different look if you prefer. But if you’re curious, you can see what it looks like now – Social Media Explorer CEO Jason Falls has set up his Over-Blog presence here.) Robert Scoble also just announced he’s switching.
There are a ton of other features, too, including analytics, built-in tools for revenue generation, support for multiple users or blogs, cross-platform optimization (i.e., mobile, tablet, TV) via responsive design, and migration support. But one of the cooler features has yet to launch: livestreaming.
The company will soon launch an iPhone application that will allow you to instantly stream video from your phone to your blog, no need to go through a third-party like Ustream or Livestream. You’ll launch the OverBlog app on your phone, press a button and it will automatically create a post on your blog with the livestream. Plus, it will automatically tweet and post to Facebook with your livestream link, too. When you’re finished livestreaming, the video can still be made available as a YouTube video. The feature is still in alpha, but is expected to launch in July.
OverBlog just launched in the U.S. at BlogWorld yesterday, but you can sign up for its private beta here.