Blog-hosting service Six Apart today purchased mobile photo blogging service SplashBlog in a move that reaffirms the blogosphere’s direction toward richer content and newer delivery
platforms.
The SplashBlog service allows
users to instantly publish photos from a camera phone to a blog.
“We’ve always thought it was incredibly important to have good
integration with mobile devices,” Barak Berkowitz, Six Apart’s CEO, told
internetnews.com. “Over time there will be a huge number of bloggers
using mobile devices for photos and voice.”
Building on features Six Apart
users already enjoy in Movable Type, TypePad and LiveJournal, SplashBlog provides client software that runs on a
variety of camera phones and a photo-hosting service that links the
mobile phone and Web service with two-way syncing.
“From a competitive standpoint we think we’re making a strong statement
that both the PC and mobile phone are important to blogging,” said
Berkowitz. “Very few, if any, competitors are taking both platforms as
seriously. We take a more holistic approach.”
SplashBlog currently allows users to capture photos on their camera phones
and upload them to splashblog.com with a single click. In addition to
uploading photos, SplashBlog users can also subscribe to other photo blogs
to view and comment on them from their mobile devices.
Berkowitz said Six Apart plans to modify the service over the next two months, as well as include more sophisticated bi-directional read
and write functionality before the end of the year.
SplashBlog currently supports all leading mobile platforms, including
Palm OS, Windows Mobile and Symbian, and the company said it will work across
all mobile operator networks.
The SplashBlog team will be responsible for
integrating their wireless sync protocols and mobile technologies across Six
Apart’s software and services.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. SplashBlog’s staff, including
a handful of developers in Portland, Ore., and Seattle, will join Six Apart,
though remain in their locations.
