At the beginning of August, Transmedia [1] introduced a unique micro-blogging platform called Glide Engage [2], which is part of the Glide OS [3] online set of tools. Today, they expanded their offering making it available on two Android phones: The G1 and the myTouch. Unlike Twitter, which limits you to 140 characters, Engage has a limit of 1400 characters.
Transmedia CEO, Donald Leka says some people say it's less a micro blogging platform and more a short-form blogging tool, a label he is more than willing to embrace. Leka feels that 140 characters is too limiting and doesn't provide a way to carry on substantial conversations and meaningful analysis. The tool not only allows users to enter longer posts, they can also set up public or private discussions around the post and invite discussion members to join a private meeting, complete with video conferencing. This makes the tool a great scenario for business users. What's more, if they wish they can still use the tool to post to Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
Transmedia plans to release versions for Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm Pre in the coming months. If you're wondering why Transmedia isn't releasing a version for the iPhone, Leka says it's in the works, but he's concerned that Apple will reject a Glide iPhone app because he believes it competes directly with Apple's MobileMe and also threatens Apple because of the ease with which users can share documents and collaborate regardless of the platform. He says it's hard for a small company like Transmedia to risk spending the development dollars to develop an iPhone App only to have it rejected by Apple, but they are close to completing one and will submit it to Apple in the near future and see what happens.
Regardless, Glide has come up with an interesting approach to micro blogging that businesses could find more intriguing than Twitter and one that offers a potential business model out of the gate, something that remains elusive for Twitter.
For more information:
- see the Transmedia press release [4]
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