Treemo, which launches today, is a
social network and media sharing site with a focus on cellphones. Formerly known as HyperMob, the Seattle-based startup also has a social mission - they’re encouraging users to recycle their old digital cameras and phones.
“Media sharing” is a fairly vague term, but the short version is that Treemo combines
Flickr-like photo and video sharing with a mobile platform. You can upload photos, videos, audio or blogs via the website, email or your phone, organize your content into sets, bookmark your favorite media and view channels on your cellphone. What’s more, you can navigate the content using social filters like those on
YouTube: most recent, most commented, most viewed, most favorited, top tags and featured media. The upload limit is 200MB per month. Other features include tagging, RSS, drag and drop management tools and the ability to share media with your network of friends. Another notable feature: you can embed the media in external sites like
MySpace,
hi5 and
Piczo using the embed codes supplied.
In fact, these features are very similar to the media-sharing site
Twango, and many other players, too. Treemo is trying to differentiate itself with a focus on mobile, allowing users to upload and consume media on their phones. However, I’m not sure that it’s enough: this is a crowded market to say the least. What’s more, it doesn’t bode well when lazy headline writers like me can sum it up with a comparison to another service: YouTube, Flickr,
Webshots,
ImageShack,
Fotolog and
Photobucket all overlap with Treemo, and all of them have more resources and users. The only strategy that I can propose is to become more of a niche play: targeting socially-conscious users perhaps. Because without a stronger angle, I think many of these media-sharing startups will struggle.
Treemo User?Mashable’s Treemo profile is HERE - feel free to add Mashable to your friends list if you sign up.
Xanga, the popular social networking site, has been ordered to pay a $1 million civil penalty for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The penalty is the largest ever assessed by the FTC for a COPPA violation.
The charge seems pretty straightforward. Xanga stated that under 13s couldn’t join, but then provided accounts to those who indicated that they were under 13 on the sign-up form (ie. the user’s birth date made them a child). In Xanga’s defense, however, they did require all users to tick a box verifying that they were over 13. Xanga’s mistake was that they didn’t check the birth date - a user whose birth date suggested they were a child would still be given an account if they ticked the box. Over the last five years, Xanga has created 1.7 million accounts for users who entered an age of less than 13.
As mentioned previously on Mashable, Xanga serves some of the youngest social networking users, and has some very strong privacy features in place. The company employs a Chief Safety Officer and provides online safety information for users. In fact, one of the reasons we rarely hear about Xanga is because it’s such a closed community. However, this is a strong reminder that social networks have to be extremely careful when it comes to dealing with underage signups.
Update: Xanga’s CEO John Hiler has responded with a statement: “Xanga has long been committed to making its site safer for its members. When these issues came to our attention, we instituted a stronger, more comprehensive safety and compliance program.” MSNBC is also reporting on the story.
Another day, another video sharing site gets funded: Arizona-based 
