 Tecnology. |
| Sharing Consumers' Tastes in Cellphone Web Surfing By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER Published: February 22, 2009 |
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| On Monday, a Denver-based start-up, Buzzwire, is unveiling a new site for cellphone users that will tap their collective preferences to create a guide to the best Web content for mobile users. Buzzwire began in 2006 as a service to help wireless carriers and video producers play videos on mobile phones. With its new site, which users can reach on their mobile browsers at m.buzzwire.com, it hopes to expand its reach. By 2012, "people will be browsing the Web more on their phones than on PCs or laptops," said Greg Osberg, Buzzwire's chief executive. "This is the first site 100 percent dedicated to the best of the mobile Web, with nothing to do with the PC Web." The number of people who surf the Internet on phones has doubled since 2006, according to Nielsen Mobile, to 40 million. Still, only 16 percent of people with cellphones use them to go online, and those that do visit an average of six sites a month, versus 100 on their computers. Mr. Osberg wants to change that. He joined Buzzwire in November after leaving as president and worldwide publisher of Newsweek, where he revamped the magazine's Web site and started its mobile site. Similar to Digg, which lists stories recommended by Digg users, Buzzwire readers will pick stories they want to appear on the site by sending a text message or e-mail message or clicking on a Buzzwire button at the bottom of a story. Unlike Digg, Buzzwire has four editors who also cull articles from around the mobile Web. Readers can scan the 20 most popular stories; navigate by topic, such as the Academy Awards, politics or health; or see the most recent links. They can also keep a list of stories they want to read later and, à la Twitter, follow their friends to see what they are reading and watching. Buzzwire aims to direct readers to the best content on the mobile Web and help publishers that have struggled to lure readers, Mr. Osberg said. TVGuide.com gets 16 million visitors each month but its mobile Web site gets only 500,000. Joining with Buzzwire "is part of a larger strategy of making sure we reach consumers wherever they are," said Paul Greenberg, general manager of TVGuide.com. Buzzwire makes money by licensing its mobile video technology, which Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Alltel already use. It will also sell ads on the site. The Deutsch advertising agency has bought all the ad space for 90 days and will run banner and video ads for clients that include DirecTV and Kodak, said Peter Gardiner, the agency's chief media officer. Advertisers have had a hard time figuring out how to reach people on their phones, he said, because TV and Web ads do not work well on phones and advertisers are wary of assaulting readers on such a personal device. "These are fears in the mobile industry," he said. "The reason we're getting involved with these guys so deeply is it's a chance to test different approaches and see what consumers like and don't like." |
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Monday, February 23, 2009
Comunidad Web con celulares inteligentes.
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