AS IF the microblogging service Twitter wasn’t enough, now there is another way to while away the hours: audioblogging.
A new service called Audioboo lets people record a high-quality, 3-minute voice commentary on some matter of pressing interest – such as the type of cupcakes they are eating – and then post it, Twitter style, in an online timeline for all to hear.
“People can record a high-quality, 3-minute voice commentary then post it online for all to hear”
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With funding from UK TV broadcaster Channel Four, Mark Rock of Best Before Media, which developed the technology, hopes Audioboo will become the next social media phenomenon – as well as being a useful journalistic and music promotion tool.
Audioboo works in association with an iPhone application which lets users record their soundclips – dubbed “boos” – using the built-in microphone. It also works from a PC browser. The service, hosted by Amazon, meshes with Twitter so users can alert their followers to new boos. “It cuts out all the crap from podcasting and makes posting sound really fast,” says Rock.
“Firms hoping to ride on the coat tails of Twitter’s success all face the same problem, though,” warns Robert Caunt of market research firm CCS Insight in London. “How do they make money from getting people to talk to each other? Audioboo might be aiming to remove some of the impersonal nature of the written word from social networking, but is anyone listening?”
