There are so many companies now that are new a “communication platform” banking off the (rather fluke) success of Twitter. Twitter is the 140 character text posts. Seesmic is going for the short length video responses. Utterz is trying to get the short-length sound bite. All are aiming at it in the similar fashion to Twitter (fan/follower, SMS) and all have merit as ideas. But not all will succeed.

Utterz, TwitterGrams, and Podcasts are all along similar lines. The only difference between them, I think, is that one is predominantly shorter (Utterz/Grams) while the other is predominantly longer (Podcasts). The idea at first makes sense. Sound bites, those were popular. The issue is not whether it was popular but that it just takes too much time to consume a podcast or utterz over a text. Kevin says it much better in his post.

Then of course there’s Seesmic playing in video land (where YouTube is the 800lb gorilla). Yes, video takes time to consume just like a podcast, but the difference, I think, is in the stimuli. You’re being engaged visually as well as orally with video. I doubt I would have to argue the entertainment value of seeing someone versus hearing. Yes, it’s still a time sink, but it’s a bit more worth it.

Sorry, Utterz, you’re last (along with podcasts, I suppose). You can just consume more text within the time you consume a single bit of audio, and audio doesn’t have the pretty colors of video. Thinking on that, I would suspect Seesmic continues to grow and becomes the non-real time version of video chat. It certainly looks awesome.
[Consequently, I don't know if I would call Jaiku (A bit of a twitter clone) a success, even if Google did buy them. OK, as a cynic, I'll say it was a success because they did get the acquisition. But I venture more for the technology than the idea.]

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