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Category: CitySpeek

Portland’s PingGadget purports to take a page from Twitter and a page from Foursquare

Rick Turoczy on August 31, 2010

Sometimes, there is a better wheel. Sometimes, a market has an 800 lbs gorilla that could use a little toppling. And yes, sometimes, I use inane marketing drivel when I can’t think of any better way to get into an article.

But see? Now we’ve made it through the intro. So I can tell you about PingGadget, a new Portland startup that’s looking to take the best of Twitter’s short format and combine it with Foursquare-esque location information to deliver a new microblogging platform. Read More

CitySpeek looks to cram more content into 140 characters

Rick Turoczy on January 5, 2009

CitySpeekLooking to provide a little more content than you can wedge into a tweet? Portland-based CitySpeek—a microblogging platform with a number of features beyond typing 140 characters—may be what you’re seeking.

Founded by members of the team that launched Goboz in 2007, CitySpeek was designed to fill some gaps in functionality that larger microblogging (oxymoron intended) platforms don’t offer—or aren’t interested in offering.

Turoczy on CitySpeek

What sort of things? I’m glad you asked.

First, on a grand scale the only similarity that CitySpeek shares with Twitter is the 140 character limit for messages (what we call ‘speeks’). CitySpeek offers many features that Twitter does not, including:

  • Groups, both open and private
  • Integrated pics and video, no leaving the site to view
  • Speek by category like “Overheard”, “Question”, “For Sale”, etc.
  • Communicate with CitySpeek via IM
  • Seamless integration with Flickr

The service is also offering Twitter crossposting—if you’re comfortable giving them your Twitter username and password.

[Editor: No offense to CitySpeek, but this “give me your Twitter username and password”—although currently unavoidable for certain functionality—has always made me edgy. And after today, it only make me moreso. However, it serves as yet another opportunity for me to wonder aloud “When oh when will Twitter make good on their promises to support OAuth?”]

CitySpeek has documented its API support and is said to have mobile support in production.

Long story short, with its group functionality, categories, and attachments, CitySpeek brings some interesting features to the social microblogging table. We’ll just have to wait and see if these additions—added to an otherwise simple format—attract users.

If you’d like to try the service for yourself, swing on by CitySpeek and register for an account. If you’d like to “speek” to me, I’m turoczy on CitySpeek.