How exciting – Natuba and TechCrunch finally crossed paths! It really is a great photo sharing site, although I have to admit my Natuba experience could probably be a lot cooler if I had an iPhone. It does some fun stuff that my Treo is unable to do. I have two options – 1) be content or 2) give in to the iPhone. I think most people would encourage the latter. =p
Bubblevine is a project I have been working on for a while now and it’s very exciting to have it go live!
The idea for Bubblevine came about at the end of my junior year in college when I noticed how much stuff (perfectly good stuff) was being thrown away all because students didn’t know what to do with it since they couldn’t take it home with them. Walking down the halls of various dorm buildiings, it was fairly common to see piles of bookshelves, lamps, TVs, bean bags, toasters, futons and other items by the dumpster. I remember thinking to myself that there must be hundreds of kids on campus that need stuff like this to furnish their apartment and dorm room. This is the magical moment where I decided to start my own little project to create a website that fosters a campus community where college students can buy stuff and sell stuff with one another.
There is also one other reason I felt inclined to pursue Bubblevine, and that’s safety. Before there was any other alternative, most students resorted to Craigslist. Although the site works, the downfall to it is that you have no idea who’s house you’ll be going to pick up the bargain deal, what their neighborhood is like, how far the place is in relation to you (until you Google it) and the flip-side, you have no knowledge about the person who will be coming to your doorstep to pick something up. During my college years, my experience with Craigslist has been less than awesome – and I’ve had several. There are two specific instances I vividly remember. The first one was when I thought I found a great deal on a TV. It wasn’t too far from me, so I said, “why not?” Not being a San Antonio native, I naively drove into a pretty sketchy part of town. I came out OK, but sometimes I question if it was really worth it. Another not so great experience was when I drove out to the other side of the city for a dinky desk. = All of this could have been avoided had something like Bubblevine existed. I would’ve appreciated a tool like it while I was in school, because there was probably someone a few streets down or even next door who would have been more than willing to sell me their stuff.
On a different note, the site is currently open to a few schools, but once it gains a little more popularity we’ll expand the list.
Here are a couple of videos to watch:
If you have any ideas or suggestions on how to promote, feel free to contact me. =)
I’m surprised that the issue of cell phone users with recycled phone numbers being inundated with text messages sent from the Facebook website has only just recently surfaced. I can vividly remember when Facebook launched its new profile text message updating feature because I had a couple of friends who were all over it. Every so often (more like every half an hour), someone’s phone would beep or ring, notifying them of the new wall post by Jane or that Bob just had poked him. It seemed like a good idea at first to have Facebook readily available no matter where you were (and I guess it still is if you’re into that), but only if you’re keeping up with your account. Knowing the nature of young internet users, I had a feeling that this text messaging service would get out of hand. Why? Well, there are many reasons:
When you have millions of teenager wall-posting fiends constantly making edits to their own profiles, as well as their friends’, at all hours of the day (I’m guessing peak hours would be anywhere from 4 PM – 2 AM), imagine how many text messages are being sent out in a day? week? a month? That’s a lot of texts. I don’t know what percentage of Facebook users actually have their online account and phone synced, regardless, a lot of texts are flying out. 1% of the 60 million users is even a pretty big number.
It’s good to know that Facebook will be regulating and monitoring their phone number database a little more closely now. It would really be annoying to receive random Facebook updates about people you don’t know and then NOT have the ability to make them stop. Not sure if this is possible, but it would be neat if the Facebook website could detect a phone number being recycled and when it does, have the messaging feature automatically disable. There are other methods I’m sure, but those are my two cents.
It’s not uncommon for everyone to have their own blog, youtube, myspace, flickr and facebook accounts – if anything, it’s very normal. However, have you noticed that these different sites were created to help you and your friends keep track of each other, but it’s gotten to a point where it’s nearly impossible to do so? Yeah – there are just too many online accounts! Let’s say the average internet user has 5 online accounts and you have 5 friends (although I’m sure you have significantly greater friend pool than that). That’s already 25 different pages you have to regularly check to see if any updates have been made. CRAZY! So, what’s the solution?
Natuba! It’s a website that will compile and aggregate all the updates from your myspace, flickr, rss feeds, youtube and other online accounts all onto one page. That way, rather than giving out 20 or so different URLs to your friends, you can give them one single link. Voila! Simple. Not only will this save you the hassle of typing each link out, it’ll also save you from that feeling of hesitation when you’re faced with the temptation of signing up for a new account. 
I had a ton of invites to give away, but they’re updating the site and will reopen soon. Once I get a hold of more invites, I’ll be sure to write another updated post!
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