Zoove--it will take real doofus to tighten up-CNET is (blog)

Usually I do not cover the companies of friends or colleagues. How you can trust me to review a product when I have an emotional interest in their success?

So that the meeting with Joe Gillespie, Executive Director of Zoove and former Executive Vice President (my boss boss) in my Division here in interactive CBS, leaving me in a bind. He is sitting on what looks like a very smart business, which I believe already is well past the point of deposit of success. I cannot cover it, and I'll be damned if I will give it to someone else. But if not, I'll Zoove must re-evaluate any respect I had ever for Joe.

Zoove is a register of mnemonic and short dialing codes for the start of the United States. All codes are preceded by ** ("Star star") and they may be any length. Here is a demo: call ** SUZUKI from your mobile phone. Should you get a message recorded by the phone call, and the immediate SMS with hyperlink to marketing video.

The Marketer, in this case, Motorocycles Suzuki, receive your phone number, type of phone and rough location, not to mention the possibility to send you all the relevant information they want on your mobile-text link to the coupon, or actually voice call connection (StarLaw network will be made with the ** right).

The big news today is that all four Zoove is registered by the main carriers of the United States: all phones of the AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon work with a single directory of Zoove star codes.

Nobody is likely to step on the Zoove action here. Get baked in the mobile operator infrastructure is years. As all of them address ** calls during Zoove is a major coup. Theoretically, other company can come along and offer competitive system of short code, like ##, except, unfortunately, Zoove has routes to these numbers, too.

After ** call, the marketer can send you a SMS message back immediately, while still listening to recorded phone message.(Credit: screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET is)

The fact that the company has now blocked these networks--not competitors that the archaic and overloaded free number directory and clunky shortcodes five digit SMS from CSCA--means that advertisers can start blasting these codes, with abandon.

And they should. Star codes are easier to use than other types of real links. With QR codes, for example, you need the app and you should point your phone in something--difficult when you're driving past Billboard (QR codes have other advantages, though). Use the SMS shortcode is twice as complex as a star code; You must send the code to the code. Zoove codes can be any length.

Do you want one for your business? Pay Joe--a lot. A short and General codes most costs. The two-letter codes are $ 75,000 a year; codes of meteorology $ 50,000, the ICAO codes are 25 000. I wanted to go ** RAFE, but Joe does not make a transaction. More codes can be less, up to $ 7,500 per year, but the generic codes are expensive. (** Flowers com 1800Flowers. costs a considerable amount.)

You also will pay a fee for trafficking and Joe for the use of cloud technology which serves the correct mobile pages or links for each phone. The service also collects analysis.

In return Zoove pay carriers charge for use of their services. "It is only fair. They build networks, "says Joe. But I know that he is not of a type to spend money if it is not required to. They must have charged a fee for access. But now they too are invested in the success of the directory.

Zoove star codes can be 800 numbers for the modern era. Zoove must spend in the next year or two take advantage of grab land for short codes (and auctioning contended codes-the NBA and NBC are the same number, for example) before dropping prices so shmoes like you and me to get our own codes.

One may argue that the dialing of phone numbers of smartphones is old-fashioned and that is a little late to build a business around it. But let's be real: quicker to dial a number from fire browser or app and enter the URL or another code. Once advertisers can start using these codes, the registry will become invaluable and ground rush should start began. It will take an extremely poor performance skills to confuse business. This makes Joe, I believe, one of the luckiest directors in technology.

Bonus Gift: Zoove not used much for BlackBerry users who do not know how to dial the number with the letter of their keyboards, since QWERTY keyboard BlackBerry devices do not show the usual number-to-letter display you see on typical 12-key dialing pads. 1-800-FLOWERS and ** flowers are both impossible to enter if you do not know that 3 is F, and so on But here is the secret of the mnemonics of the recruitment of BlackBerry: hold down the ALT key when you want to map a point of BlackBerry thumb keyboard with phone number with the keyboard. Joe, who came to our meeting with his old school, the BlackBerry is all about eager to spread knowledge for this tip.

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