Palo Alto startup Cooliris has built its reputation by creating a slick experience for browsing photos, videos, and other media, but now ita4a4s making the famous Silicon Valley a4Apivota4 with a new mobile and Web application called LiveShare.
Co-founder and chief executive Soujanya Bhumkar told me the LiveShare app tackles a common problem with photo-sharing: trying to control who sees the photo. With LiveShare, you arena4a4t limited to either sharing photos with everyone or with a preset group of friends. Instead, for each set of photos you determine who gets access. Then the people youa4a4ve invited can look at your photos and add pictures of their own. Ita4a4s an evolution of the original form of online photo-sharing, where you just emailed pictures to your friends.
Co-founder and director of product Mayank Mehta offered a couple of instances where this approach makes sense. You could create LiveShare streams around one-time events like conferences or parties, or you could use a stream to continually share photos with a small group of people, like your immediate family.
Cooliris is one of a number of high-profile startups that have jumped on the mobile photo-sharing bandwagon in the past few months, but its approach sounds pretty different. Apps like Instagram (which was also a shift from the startupa4a4s original location app Burbn) and Picplz focus on allowing you to share your pictures with everyone. Path emphasizes creating a small group of connections that you share everything with.
Bhumkar argued that this isna4a4t a complete change for Cooliris, but rather an evolution of its existing products. It sounds like an attempt to offer something a bit more practical than Coolirisa4a4 3D wall, which was cool but not something Ia4a4d use every day.
The connection between Coolirisa4a4 old and new products is particularly evident in the Web version of LiveShare (there are also downloadable apps for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone 7), whose appearance is similar to the 3D Wall. The app will take advantage of the technology that Cooliris has built for displaying high-quality brand advertising, Bhumkar said, and it also integrates with one of Coolirisa4a4 other products, the Gallery app that comes preinstalled on Android phones. Gallery users will now be able to share photos directly to LiveShare from the app.
Cooliris released the first version of LiveShare about a month ago, and ita4a4s making its first big publicity push this week at the Mobile World Congress.
The company also just announced a new $9.6 million round of funding from existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield &' Byers, DAG Ventures, The Westly Group, and Deutsche Telekoma4a4s T-Venture. Cooliris has now raised $27.6 million.
Next Story: How Zendesk&'s iPad app makes customer support child&'s play Previous Story: MasterImage 3D shows glasses-free 3D on a 7-inch tablet display
Print Email Twitter Facebook Google Buzz LinkedIn Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Delicious Google More&8230'
Companies: Cooliris, Dag Ventures, deutsche telekom, Kleiner Perkins Caufield &' Byers, The Westly Group
People: Mayank Mehta, Soujanya Bhumkar
Companies: Cooliris, Dag Ventures, deutsche telekom, Kleiner Perkins Caufield &' Byers, The Westly Group
People: Mayank Mehta, Soujanya Bhumkar
Anthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.com
VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters. Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
Comments