Like a typical tech junkie, Ben Keighran has always wanted more out of his gadgets and gizmos than they were meant to provide. Unlike many, however, Keighran did something about it. In his native Australia, Keighran built his first online bulletin board (BBS) at age 13. Several years later, as a university student with one of the first Ericsson Bluetooth phones, he tried to turn the handset into a wireless modem for his PC. He also managed to hack into the phone and built his first mobile application so that when he walked into his apartment a list of the songs stored on his PC would show up on the phone’s screen and he just had to hit a button to start them playing.
That still wasn’t enough for the man with the engineering background; he wanted to be able to share his music. So Keighran started building a platform on which he could create Internet-style applications for mobile phones, apps that would work regardless of the phone model or network. Now, five years later, that platform is the basis for Bluepulse, a free, ad-based mobile social messenger service that combines aspects of social networking and instant messaging into a single platform.
The beta version of Bluepulse, launched in December 2006 by the company of the same name, was a downloadable Java application. The app was downloaded more than three million times in 10 months by users in more than 150 countries. And, according to Keighran, “it’s already bigger than MySpace and Facebook on mobile in the US – combined.” In late October, the company released a new, mobile Web-based version of Bluepulse that added a host of innovative features, including a “revolutionary” way to send and receive messages.
The new Bluepulse boasts a universal message box for both sending and receiving all types of messages from a single interface. With the universal sending box, users can send a message to multiple friends and groups, with any combination of e-mail addresses, phone numbers and IM screen names, all at once. On the receiving side, all incoming friends’ profile updates, text messages, e-mails, instant messages and the like can be viewed in the same place – a single screen with an IM-like feel. The new platform also introduces the concept of group friending. With other social networking services, to add new friends you browse their profiles. Keighran said Bluepulse didn’t want to incorporate that approach “because it doesn’t fit the mobile model.” Instead, when a user hits “reply all” to a message from a friend, he’s informed if any of the recipients aren’t already on his friends list. If they’re not, he can easily ask them if they’d like to be added.
According to the company, group friending makes it easier for users to expand their network. Other new features include SMS and e-mail alerts to let users know they have a message waiting for them on Bluepulse; address importing that lets users invite their Facebook, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Gtalk, MSN and MySpace friends join them on Bluepulse and public groups built around user interests. Typically, social networks fall into one of three categories, said Keighran, IRC-style chat rooms, anonymous profiles and user-generated content portals. Some are PC-based and built for browsing, while others are mobile versions that “provide a window into the PC service,” he said. Then there’s a new category, the mobile social network, which Bluepulse hopes to help define. Bluepulse is the first mobile-only trusted social network, according to Keighran.
The company, which now calls Silicon Valley home, decided to launch its first version on Java so it would work on around half a billion of the three billion or so mobile phones in use, Keighran said. The new browser-based application doubles the potential user base to a billion. The browser-based version works on any Internet-enabled phone. Bluepulse markets the service directly to consumers, so it doesn’t have partnerships with any carriers or handset manufacturers that might want to put limits on how members can use the service.
MobileInternetReporter.com 