The Next Web conference in Amsterdam just announced the winner of their startup competition. The judges were unanimous in naming My Name is E, and the startup got the audience vote as well.
“E” enables you to collect all your social and contact accounts – on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and any other network – in one spot, and share them in real life by using any mobile phone or Connector, the USB product they also sell.
It’s not dissimilar to Poken in that latter respect, but as well as the wireless USB device it also lets you exchange cards between iPhones, Blackberries, Android phones, Windows Mobile phones, Nokias, Motorolas, Palm phones, and so on via the mobile web. So it’s a better interface all round – but it will face stiff competition from Poken which is already up and running and selling in big numbers in Europe and Japan and is poised to launch a marketing operation in the US.
E Mobile works a mobile web browser. You log in, select a card, and add your contact. To exchange a card with someone, you enter each other’s usernames on E. E will share the selected cards and automatically ‘friend’ you with the person you’re meeting on the social networks of your choice. It also supports industry standards like vCard exporting. It’s not done by Bluetooth or Infrared connection but locates you via the your IP location. You show the person you want to exchange cards with a unique pass code, they enter that into their phone and you’re then connected.
I think what people like most about the idea is that it doesn’t require a native app to run an gets rid of business cards. It also allows you to connect via Facebook, Linked, in etc, without having to go back to your office and do all the time-consuming inviting. However, I rather doubt business cards – which are about 300 years old – are about to disappear.
E on iPhone from My Name is E on Vimeo.
Seems complicated. Who would actually do this (normal people)?
THE IPHONE ALSO make communication FULL BUT SERIOUS AS REQUESTED BY THE INTERNET OR BY CUSTOMERS OR COMMON…
neat. wonder why Plaxo didn’t think of this…
Plaxo has come to its end, I guess.
Full disclosure: I’m the co-founder of a company with a similar product, but I wanted people to be aware of it. Our product, Bump(tm) was recently released for iPhone and iPod Touch and will be ported to many other phone platforms in the coming months. Bump lets you exchange your contact information with others by just bumping your phones together — no passcodes, usernames, or additional hardware. Bump is free on the iTunes App Store. You can watch our 35-second video demo at:
http://www.bumptechnologies.com
-dave, co-founder, Bump Technologies LLC
But the bump looks really cool. How do you match users? By matching bump time moments?
yeah how???
Nasty comment, David. You really should seek your own ways into getting publicity.
@Renn, congrats on a job well done.
Seems odd to me that Poken has something of an easier model. I guess the integration with mobile devices is nice for E, but Poken already has a better name and nifty little gadgets. Plus no immediate data entry requirement — just a 2 second physical connection.
If I wanted to log into some website to add a friend, I’d log into the social network in question and do it, rather than some aggregator.
This has promise, but I wouldn’t be much of a commenter if I didn’t immediately try and poke holes in it, right?
I wonder if the “E” in “My Name is E” refers to the generic placeholder programmers use to represent types that are to be decided later. (Ex: List being implemented as List.)
The commenting took away my less than and greater than signs after List.
Congratulations i have had some problems with Linked In and other accounts but i love the idea!
This sounds awesome i would love to arrange a platform for you at the Outdoor Show!
Innovation and Technology” is the main theme and i am sure that a the early adopters of social media in the Outdoor Industry would love this!
http://twitter.com/outdoorshow
Bit too mind boggling for me I’m afraid.
This is what Google needs to be doing, instead of messing around with Orkut and Picasa and even maybe Gmail.
They need to be offering services that integrate all these 3rd party services into a single centralized location.
soumyadipdas@rocketmail.com