ShoZu Expands Mobile Video/Photo Uploading to Vox & LiveJournal, Adding Major
Blogging Destinations to Web Partner Network -- Enables Handset-to-Blog Image
Transfer Plus Two-Way Blog Comments
SAN FRANCISCO-- ShoZu Inc. today announced the extension of its Share-It mobile
video and photo uploading service to Vox (www.vox.com) and LiveJournal (www.livejournal.com), popular personal blogging services that are part of the Six Apart blogging
family. ShoZu now supports more than two dozen online communities and other Web
destinations, giving consumers far more options for handset-to-Web content transfer
than any other uploading application.
LiveJournal is one of the largest online communities in the world, with more
than 12 million personal journals created since the site was launched in 1999.
Vox is a new service with rich blogging, social networking, and privilege-setting
features designed to enable users to share their experiences with friends and
family. Parent company Six Apart also hosts TypePad, another ShoZu upload option
that is one of the largest paid blogging services in the world.
With these latest additions to the ShoZu ecosystem, users with ShoZu-enabled
mobile phones can transmit images and videos taken with their camera phones directly
to their Vox or LiveJournal blogs with one click. Both photos and video clips
can be uploaded at full resolution at file sizes up to 4MB, offering a distinct
advantage over lower-resolution Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) image transfers
that limit files to just 500K. Titles, tags and/or text can be attached during
the initial upload or added at any later date with automatic attachment to the
appropriate blog entry.
In addition, both Vox and LiveJournal users will soon be able to use ShoZu’s
two-way messaging service to interact with their readers. Reader comments will
be automatically forwarded to the phone, and user replies sent from the handset
will be automatically posted back to the appropriate blog online. This marks the
first time that ShoZu has enabled its two-way messaging capabilities on a blogging
destination.
“Our TypePad service has been integrated with ShoZu for more than a year, and
our users have appreciated how easy mobile blogging has become,” said Michael
Sippey, VP of Product, Professional Division of Six Apart. “Equipping our Vox
and LiveJournal bloggers with the same easy mobile upload capabilities will allow
them to post an entry whenever the spirit or the image moves them, even if they
are on the road.”
“One of the strengths of the ShoZu service is that we can offer consumers a wide
range of upload choices with a single application installed on the handset. We
therefore have established an impressive roadmap of partner integrations to continue
broadening that choice,” said Bob Morgan, ShoZu Vice President, North America.
“Vox and LiveJournal are an important part of that campaign, particularly for
the growing community of people who express themselves through personal blogs.”
In addition to the three Six Apart blogging properties, ShoZu currently supports
online communities such as YouTube, Flickr, Google Picasa, Buzznet, Kodak EasyShare
Gallery, Webshots, Moblog.uk, Dada.net and Pikeo; personal blogging sites Google
Blogger, Windows Live Spaces, Textamerica and WordPress; citizen-contributed photojournalism
sites such as CNN, the BBC and Scoopt; and any FTP or email address.
ShoZu’s Share-It service enables customers to upload photos and video clips captured
on their camera phones with fewer clicks, at higher resolution and to more Web
destinations than any other method. Users also have the unique ability to add
titles or tags after uploading, exchange comments between Web and phone, upload
any image to multiple destinations without paying multiple data fees, and automatically
add location tags for sites that support geotagging. Consumers can make phone
calls or take more photos while an image is transferring, and transfers automatically
resume from the point of failure in the event of a dropped connection.
ShoZu currently supports 166 Symbian, Java, Microsoft Windows Mobile-based and
BREW devices available from multiple manufacturers. The service can also be used
with select WiFi-enabled mobile phones such as the Nokia N80 in Europe and Dash
in the U.S., enabling multimedia files to be routed over users’ home, office or
WiFi connection (or AirPort connection for Mac users) rather than the cellular
network to reduce data transport costs.
The ShoZu client software can be downloaded to supported handsets at no charge
from www.shozu.com and will soon be pre-installed on select devices. The same software also powers
ShoZu’s ZuCast media delivery service, enabling zero-click delivery of select
videos, photos, music, games, news and other content directly to the mobile phone
at the user’s request.
About ShoZu
ShoZu is a mobile media service that enables consumer and media companies to
interact with customers on their mobile phones through fast, easy exchange of
multimedia content and web-based services. The company’s patented technology allows
consumers to download and upload photos, videos, music, text and other digital
content to and from the handset without the need to open a mobile browser, wait
for pages to load, interrupt phone calls, start over in the event of a dropped
connection, or sync to a PC. Services include innovative ZuCasts that deliver
content to the handset automatically, one-click uploading of camera phone images
and video clips to community websites and other destinations, and a mobile advertising
platform that provides non-intrusive and highly targeted ad delivery. For more
information, visit www.shozu.com/aboutus.
About Six Apart
Six Apart Ltd. provides award-winning blogging software and services that change
the way millions of individuals, organizations, and corporations connect and communicate
around the world every day. Founded in 2002 by husband and wife team Ben Trott
and Mena G. Trott, Six Apart has grown into a global company with its headquarters
in San Francisco, CA, and offices in Europe and Japan. The company continues to
lead in the blogging and social media industry with the Movable Type publishing
platform; the TypePad hosted blogging service <http://www.typepad.com/>; LiveJournal <http://www.livejournal.com>, an online community organized around personal journals; and Vox <http://www.vox.com/>, a free blogging service for friends and families. For more information visit
the Six Apart corporate web site at http://www.sixapart.com/. |