A) Pre-install lots of separately branded apps that basically do the same thing, which is inefficient on memory space and leads to icon overload.

B) Use a standards-based approach (such as MMS or WAP), which requires no special client in the phone but leads to a lowest-common-denominator feature set and a sub-optimal user experience.

The approach we took to solve this with ShoZu is to make a dynamically configurable client connected to an open gateway server.

- Users configure their accounts at the gateway server via a web page, choosing where they want their photos and videos to go - Buzznet, Flickr, Textamerica, Webshots, more coming soon…

- The client dynamically configures itself when it connects to the server, switching features on and off and modifying menu options to fit the feature set of the chosen online service.

The result is a single, generic client on the phone, that works nicely with a range of online services.

This approach works well for integrating to online services that provide a fairly standard feature set with smallish variations (e.g. blogging and photo sharing).

For example, most photo sharing sites support a common set of features that you might want to access on the phone (uploading photos, uploading videos, adding tags, titles, descriptions, viewing other people’s photos, reading other people’s comments on your own photos…).

Andy Tiller
CTO Cognima (creators of ShoZu)

1- SE has previously done very little regarding moblogging. When they do, it creates a buzz, which is positive. Now “everybody” is talking moblogging… a rising tide lifts all boats. Most people dont moblog, never heard of moblogs. Now they can read about it in SE’s manual for the phone they just bought. They will try it, the scenario described by Alfie happens, and then they will move on, and moblog somewhere more fun, like moblog.co.uk or mobilblogg.net (disclaimer: Im on the crew)

2- The moblogrelated features, better camera, the BestPic function etc will benifit all mobloggers regardles of where you moblog. Maybe SE needed the parnership for this development? I guess it was difficult to fund development of better moblogtools when they couldn’t provide a moblog (hard to depend on independents). NOKIA have their Lifeblog, SE had -until yesterday -close to nothing.

3- The fact that a mobile manufacteurer does something so webrelated is very good. The symbiosis with phone providers and carriers is broken, and the carriers are sidesteppped. With more Wifi hotspots and Skype, both moblogging and phonecalls can be done regardless of carriers.

That manufacturers now are teaming up with webcompanies.. should not be a surprise. This is necessary for creating useful apps for the mobile internet, as mentioned in the article.

What’s missing? Community is; the only thing that keeps a moblogger incentivised. Moblogging is not blogging, it’s as far removed as poetry is to novella prose.

Without a community, the person using blogger on their lovely SE won’t have any reason to continue posting, and there dies the partnership.

Now if the partnership was with an existing photo sharing site like Flickr or moblogUK (disclaimer: me and my mates), or webshots or whatever, there’s a community there to incentivise the poster.

Before anyone points out that this is aimed at your family and friends, your family and friends don’t give a toss really, they love you, but they don’t Maybe a comment on your first post, but past that? de nada.

This is a wonderful step, I applaud it completely, but as every operator driven photo sharing site before it, in every locale, it is imo, doomed to complete failure. Show me the metrics, and I’ll stand down.