When the “always on” social network Velvet Puffin first launched, it seemed like a tough sell for users. They tied together the web, desktop, and mobile phone interfaces into one social network accessible anywhere, but you had to download a desktop and mobile application to do so. Velvet Puffin is back and has shed one of the desktop downloads while keeping a presence on the desktop. However, they didn’t use one of the rich internet platforms (Adobe AIR or Silverlight) to do it. Instead, they’ve created a “quick launch” version that allows you to easily access their social networking/chat application on any system with desktop functionality. They’re using a combination of a java applet, Flash, and C++ programming to quickly launch their chat and content sharing application outside of the browser. How they are being used is a bit of a secret sauce, but Founder and CEO Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan says the java is used to ensure security integrity before session is established, Flash for the application, and C++ for maintaining the connection. Now when you log in, the social networking program launches in its own window, providing the full functionality of the downloaded app. You can even upload photos to your account by dragging them on to the application. As we described during their launch, you can use the client to chat, blog, and share photos and videos. The chat application interacts with Yahoo, GTalk, AIM, MSN, and ICQ. It also sends messaging updates and grabs a spot on your system tray. A chat application like this really benefits from being on the desktop since you can still receive updates while your browser is out of focus. However, the first time you sign on, you do have the annoying chore of giving the java applet permission to run. Velvet Puffin decided to take this “un-web 2.0″ route instead of siding with AIR or Silverlight because they utilize technologies already on people’s systems. We still have yet to see what platform decisions a lot of sites are making as they merge from the web to the desktop. Pownce and eBay have already sided with AIR. Silverlight is still waiting on some big applications like Popfly to come out of beta. → Read More
Singapore based VelvetPuffin is launching a mobile/desktop social networking platform today. The new product consists of a profile site, desktop IM client, and mobile client synchronized by their parent company’s (Radix) server side software. The motivation behind the project was to create a consistent experience across these three common social mediums missing from the mobile browser versions of a lot of the other social networking services. Together, the two clients let you stay continuously connected to the social network, chatting, or sharing photos and video between the mobile and desktop clients instantly. The two clients also connect to the Yahoo!, AOL, and MSN IM networks, but provides enhanced content for VelvetPuffin members. Members clients include photo and video galleries, blog, and polling widgets. When content is added to your profile, it pushes notifications to your VelvetPuffin friends, and also to the website if the content is public. Apart from VelvetPuffin videos and photos, users can also find and view Flickr photos, and YouTube, Google, and MetaCafe videos on their website or phone. While I find an “always on” social network compelling, the major drawback of VelvetPuffin is their two required downloads (desktop and mobile), a tough sell for consumers now accustomed to website based applications. I don’t think that a superior mobile experience will be enough to get users to jump on board en masse. A lot of companies have been trying to crack open the mobile sector in the US, and for good reason, there are over 2.6 billion mobile subscribers worldwide. SK Telecom’s Helio has been throwing cash at the problem ($440 million) for the past year and hopes to make it to 100K subscribers by the second quarter this year (in a conspicuously missing press release they hope to be at 3.3 million by 2009). That’s with MySpace integration. Amp’d Mobile, with it’s $260 million financing and 100K subscribers, has been slugging away at the mobile social networking problem along with Boost’s Loopt friend locator. Amp’d launched in December of 2005. Boost launched it’s friend locator last September, with their last report boasting an impressive 100K of Boost’s over 3 million subscribers. VelvetPuffin has $10 million in financing, but is also rumored to have some upcoming carrier deals. → Read More
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