It’s been a big year for the artist formerly known as GOGII. Back in October, the Southern California-based startup raised $18 million in series D financing from The Raine Group, Kleiner Perkins, Matrix Partners and GRP, bringing its total investment to just over $46 million. The round was a testament to the continuing success of its flagship product, textPlus, a free text messaging app that has… → Read More
For all the work that GOGII has put into their free textPlus messaging app, they have spent much of the last two or so years letting users do essentially one thing: communicate via text. As of today, that’s no longer the case: with the launch of their Free Calls app, GOGII’s trying to stake their claim in the voice space too.
Sure, GOGII tested the waters with the textPlus’s Voice Note… → Read More
GOGII’s well-funded, free text messaging app, textPlus, announced today that it has crossed the 10 billion text messages sent mark since it launched in the app store in June of 2009. They’re pumping out texts like McDonald’s pumps out burger patties. Of course, when it comes to group and micro-messaging apps, textPlus has some competition. Think SXSW and you probably think group messaging. Ask… → Read More
If you are a group texting startup worth your salt, you’ve got to have a new app ready for the upcoming SXSW conference in Austin. GroupMe, Beluga (which was just bought by Facebook), Kik, TextPlus, and offshoots like Yobongo will all be strutting their stuff. Not to be outdone, Fast Society just pushed out a completely revamped iPhone app and an Android app is coming out today as well.
I… → Read More
It’s war!
This week, I went to the unveiling of the iPad 2 and got some hands-on time with the device afterwards. Meanwhile, Jason bought a Xoom and has been extensively testing it out. The consensus? iPad 2: Good. Xoom: Bad. At least for now. I haven’t extensively played with iPad 2 yet, and Google is undoubtedly going to patch the Xoom. But still, first impressions are key.
Jason and I discuss… → Read More
We’re a week away from the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas and it’s becoming very clear what the big battleground will be this year: group messaging apps. Just like micro-messaging apps a few years ago, and location apps last year, a bunch of players are poised to battle for the conference crown. But the fight will be even crazier this year as apps from players big (Ask Around) and small (Ditto)… → Read More
A month ago, we detailed a new location-based realtime chat service called Yobongo. At the time, co-founder Caleb Elston didn’t want us to show shots of the app in action because it was still a work-in-progress. But now he’s finally comfortable enough with everything that he’s asking beta testers to do just that. And he should be, as the app both looks great and needs to be ready to go for the… → Read More
Group messaging has been something that has been pretty hot for a while now. In fact, it’s gotten so hot that products from other hot spaces are starting to pivot towards it — see: Brightkite. But despite the hotness, I’ve yet to find one of these apps that really hooks me. But a new entry in the space, Beluga, may just be my elusive white whale.
As first covered yesterday by blogger Louis… → Read More
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