Finally back from my blogging hiatus!

Ok, so I admit it. Since December 2009, I’ve taken a rather extended hiatus from blogging to spend a bit more time with my family. My better half will tell you that it was long over due and I’ll have to agree. While it’s been a nice break to get off the grid and away from writing, I’m finally back and re-energized.

Moving forward, I plan on spending much more time focusing my discussions around the mobile space, i.e., mobile recruiting, mobile marketing & SMS, mobile site optimization, and other mobile-related technologies, etc. I invite you to spend a little time browsing the site. Who knows, you may find something that interests you.

Need help building a mobile recruiting solution, site, or want me to speak at your conference? If so, feel free to email me. However, if you simply want to connect to me, there are many ways to do so. Here’s a good place to start…

See you in the cloud!

The Ultimate Mobile-SMS Directory - (Part 1)

If you follow my blog then you have likely read my previous posts discussing the advantages of integrating SMS (text-messaging) into the recruitment process. Given the growing interest in the mobile space, I thought it would be a good idea to share this quick reference on available SMS Providers.

Please note, I have not used all of the sites or SMS services below but share this as a reference for you to test and evaluate.  This list is still a work in progress.

SMS Directory

• 3jam - group messaging service via the web.  Message groups of up to 100. 3Jam offers free and premium service.
• 4INFO - 4INFO is the largest provider of free text message alerts and information in the United States. 4INFO is about bringing you the information you want, when you want it.
• 811 - Free SMS site for USA and Canada - unlimited messages.
• 88444 - 84444.com launches do-it-yourself mobile marketing campaigns from the convenience of your desktop computer.
• Africa SMS - Allows to send instant alerts, text and deffered messages to mobile phones around the world from your desktop.
• airPoop.com - Offers a free short text messaging and blogging service optimized for mobile phones.
• Amethon Mobile Data Solutions - Mobile data solutions provider based in Sydney, Australia. Specialising in WAP and SMS based technologies. Offer outsourced WAP hosting and SMS gateway.
• AspSMS - Features text, bulk and binary SMS, also includes delivery notification, operator logos, and ringtones.
• Bond Wireless - Provider of global two-way SMS connectivity and applications.
• Brand2Hand - Fully automated intelligent web based SMS communication tool. Live two way text campaign manager, Surveys, Competitions, Operator Logos, Ringtones and many other facilities. (online demo)
• 123bulksms - Bulk SMS messaging services and SMS Gateway connectivity provider.
• Bulletin Online - Web tools and programs, broadcast text messaging worldwide, plus subscription based email to SMS.
• Channelmobile - offers turnkey solutions for SMS, Bulk SMS, MMS, WAP Push Messaging, WAP Billing Solutions, Mobile Payment Gateways, Mobile Websites (Mobisites), Premium Rate SMS.
• Cherple - Free text messages to US cell phones for anyone with an internet connection anywhere in the world. With Cherple you have to download their software and install it on your computer (Windows and Mac version available).
• Clickatell (Pty) Ltd. - Provides bulk SMS messaging services and gateway connectivity. Headquarters in Cape Town, South Africa.
• ClickSMS - Text messaging service and bulk SMS provider. based in the UK.
• Connection Software - Send SMS text messages from a web page, PC or APIs.
• Directtexting.com - SMS service for small to mid-size companies. Get a shared short code.
• E-Call - SMS service giving an address book, history logbook, group lists, ringtones and screen graphics. Free and Premium versions of the service exist.
• Egypt SMS - Corporate SMS solutions, supporting SMPP, EMI/UCP and HTTP with global coverage.
• End2End - Mobile data services - Provides solution for M2M, telemetry, telematics, interactive SMS, number portability and mobile internet.
• Everywhereigo - A self-service mobile solutions provider for individuals and companies seeking to build their own mobile website.
• FunMail - MMS consumer and enterprise services for wireless carriers including comics, and greetings.
• General Wireless - Provider of mobile messaging solutions based on the SMS, EMS, and MMS standards.
• Google SMS - Offers United States local business listings, driving directions, movie showtimes, weather conditions, stock quotes and dictionary definitions on mobile phone.
• Her.ph - Intercarrier text messaging gateway between North American wireless phone networks.
• iLoop -  iLoop Mobile is the leader in mobile technology and services that make mobile marketing and mobile content delivery fast, easy and compelling.
• iMezz - iMezz.com offers global sms text message delivery to consumers and businesses worldwide.
• Information Gateway - A wireless applications service provider offering a wide array of innovative products for mobile entertainment and messaging.
• Inspirus - Provides SMS solution to Australian businesses.
• InvolveMobile - Mobile marketing that is powerful and easy to use, with short code & bulk SMS.
• Joopz - SMS message from the web. Set up groups of up to 10 and mass-broadcast updates.  Free and premium service offerings available.
• Kannel: Open Source WAP and SMS Gateway - Open Source for WAP and SMS Gateway. Sites provides downloads of the software and related documentation.
• Loadntxt - Offers two-way text messaging service between the United States and the Philippines.
• mBlox - SMS - Two-way services worldwide for entertainment, messaging and media applications; includes revenue collection services.
• mJob - Mobile Solution Provider for small to large companies.
• Mobile Alerts - Allows to send individualised SMS messages globally.
• Mobile-Sender SMS - Mobile Sender provide free SMS services to the USA and around the world. Members can send unlimited amount of free messages.
• Mobile Storm - Mobile Storm is proven mobile solutions provider with almost a decade of experience. They have delivered 2+ billion messages and executed a million email and mobile marketing campaigns on behalf of thousands of customers.
• Mobivity - SMS solutions for users who wish to build their own mobile marketing campaigns.
• Mtn Sms - Send SMS messages to MTN’s partner networks throughout the world.
• MX Telecom - Provider of SMS and MMS solutions, with direct connections to all the major UK carriers.
• PhindMe.net - A private labeled, easy to use technology that provides service organizations everything they need to mobile-enable their clients.
• Pinger - Textfree lets iPhone and iPod touch owners send free text messages to any US mobile phone. Replies come free too!
• Powered SMS - Allowing bulk sms via web to mobile, https covering worldwide network.
• Promo2cell - Allows bulk SMS messages.
• PSWin - SMS Gateway provider with global coverage. Advanced web-based service for setting up two-way SMS services and group messaging.
• Qittle - Qittle helps businesses create, customize and manage a mobile marketing initiative.
• Quios - Text messaging and news delivery to mobile devices.
• Recruit2Mobile - Mobile Marketing/SMS Solution Provider for small to large companies.
• Red Fish Media - Red Fish Media is a top tier provider of Mobile Marketing services and SMS applications.
• Red Oxygen - Tools to send and receive SMS messages from Outlook, Lotus Notes and Microsoft Windows, or to integrate messaging capability into other applications.
• Roam Secure - Offers an emergency communications service over SMS networks to handheld devices. Also offer email to SMS service.
• SendsmsNow - Send free sms to many countries including USA, Canada, India, Pakistan, Europe (not the UK), Figi, Kazakhstan, Kenya and other African countries.
• Simplewire - Simplewire is a wireless messaging infrastructure and software provider.
• 2sms - Provides business text messaging service, allowing to communicate with people via mobile phone, direct from computer.
• SMS-24 SMS Gateway - Offering fast and reliable worldwide SMS delivery at low cost, including pictures, logos and ringtones.
• SMS Storm - Provides software for desktop sms service with no internet connection, just need mobile and pc.
• SMS.ac - Global community system offering SMS and multimedia messaging services. Service includes an initial free message quota but does levy charges for sending messages to your phone introducing you to other users.
• SMSalias - Send and receive short messages to mobile phones around the world from desktop.
• SMSFax - Provide worldwide SMS bulk messaging tools and connectivity.
• smsGeezer - Send SMS text messages from the web, email, a downloadable program, or Excel.
• SMSWhiz - South African - bulk SMS aggregator. Multiple gateways. Delivery advertised globally.
• sms2world - Provides you with a cost-free newsticker in the Internet, whose content you can easily update by means of SMS from your own cell-phone.
• SumoText - mobile solutions provider for both individual users, as well as enterprise customers.
• Tatango - Connecting groups through text messaging.
• Telsis Limited - Supplier of products and solutions for enhanced voice and video telecommunications services. England
• Text2Land - Offers users the ability to send sms to landline phones.
• Text For Free - Offers anonymous text messaging with no usage limits.
• TextingForward - TextingForward provides clients with mobile marketing solutions using SMS technology.
• TextMarks - TextMarks is an early stage company focused on making text messaging more powerful and more accessible. We empower individuals and organizations to “text message enable” their information and their web pages — and to do so in a matter of minutes.
• Text Message Bible - A collection of text messages ranging from jokes to love poems.
• TreasureMyText is an online SMS storage system.
• TrueSenses - Swiss provider of SMS and MMS covering Europe, USA and Australia. Various interfaces supported.
• Trumpia - Text messaging that fully integrates with your various social networks, IM, and email.
• txt4biz - Professional text message solutions and bespoke software solutions for customised SMS.
• Wiana SMS mesh gateway - Send text messages for free to any bluetooth mobile connected to the meshAP network.
• Wire2Air - makes it easy to stay connected with your customers, clientele or mobile organization.

Is there a site or SMS service you have used in the past and believe should be added to this list? Please leave a comment on this post and I will be sure to add your recommendation to this reference material.

Thanks for stopping by and come again soon!

Every cloud has a silver lining…and it’s yours

An interesting post and comments on ReadWriteWeb…

Dave Winer yesterday announced EC2 for Poets, a step-by-step guide to help you create a server on Amazon’s EC2. His how-to is so easy to understand that we had our own server up and running within the hour. Sure, it may not seem like much that this fairly uninteresting page is sitting out there somewhere, but for this writer, it was an amazing coup.

“It’s time to stop thinking about these servers as being things for geeks and start thinking about them as things for people with ideas,” Winer said in a podcast roadmap he created for this work. The technology available today is enabling anyone with even the slightest technical bent to get out there and create amazing new things; often taking the technology in directions than the company which created it could have ever imagined.

Here’s a link to the entire thread: Got an Hour? Create a Server in the Cloud.

Senseboard: Mobile users can now input text or data in any environment.

Imagine this…

One day, we will all have the ability to type messages without the use of a physical keyboard or a mobile device. Does it sound like a radical idea? Well, a new player has emerged and they have developed a unique product that allows users to effectively input text or data in practically any environment. The company driving this vision is called Senseboard.


Founded in 2000, and headquartered in Stockholm, Senseboard has revolutionized the idea of productivity on the mobile phone unlike ever before. Here’s an excerpt from their site:

Data Entry platform will radically change the overall Human-Computer Interaction paradigm by allowing users to interact with their device at virtually any time and any place. The Senseboard® Gesture Recognition Technology™ (GRT) is a unique proprietary method of capturing, analyzing, and interpreting finger and hand movements.

Designed for “keyboard challenged” mobile computer users, Senseboard® wearable data entry platform is a small device that attaches to the palm of the hand and allows users to type on any surface as if it were a keyboard. It works by measuring hand and finger movements, and determines the appropriate keystrokes, mouse movements or gestures.

Senseboard

Touch-technology, natural gesturing, and a small device that attaches to the palm of the hand? If
I didn’t know better, that sounds a lot like Oblong’s G-Speak touch-technology, but with a slight “mobile” twist. That said, the Senseboard seems more applicable and affordable for individual users; whereas, Oblong’s G-Speak seems much more targeted towards enterprise customers.

So, my only question at this point is, where can I purchase my Senseboard!

Mobile Social Web: 975 Million Users By 2012

Interesting commentary from ReadWriteWeb…

The next big trend for social networking is the rise of the mobile social network. Gen Y’s cell phone addiction has given way to a proliferation of these mobile networks, each one trying to be the MySpace of the mobile web. The number of users on these services is growing fast - in fact, a new study by InStat is predicting that by 2012, there will be nearly 30 million “millennials” in the U.S. using a mobile social network of some sort, and a ComputerWorld report confirms that worldwide, that number will soar to 975 million by 2012.

Mobile Social Web: 975 Million Users By 2012 - ReadWriteWeb.

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