Previously I got in touch with Kushcash.com and following on from there I also spoke with Obopay.
How does Obopay differ from your cometitors?

Obopay is the only secure P2P mobile payments solution that lets consumers easily get, send, spend and track money via virtually any mobile phone in real time. For just launching the service in October 2006, the company is experiencing some incredible momentum. The service is live, available on any mobile phone, with special support from Amp’d and Helio. After experiencing rapid, viral growth among consumers, the company announced its acquisition of youth-driven money tracking site BillMonk as well as new operations in India. Look for more announcements from Obopay with a variety of “big names” in the weeks ahead.

Currently the service is only available in the U.S. Do you plan on expanding into other countries?

Obopay recently announced new operations in India as part of its global expansion strategy.

Are we going to see any new features later on down the track?

Absolutely. Obopay recently acquired popular money tracking site BillMonk and will be integrating functionality on both sides. Today we announced parents can create accounts for kids under 18, which is great for handing out allowance money that is often spent on items that can’t be spent with cash - i.e., iTunes, Amazon, etc.

And finanlly, where do you see mobile payments in a few years time?

While NFC and greater industry cooperation is going to have a huge impact on mobile payments on retail outlets, consumers are ready now for a mobile peer-to-peer payment solution, and Obopay is delivering! We believe today’s busy, on-the-go consumers require new services that give them greater ease and flexibility in the payment and management of “social money.” Social money is the money that passes between people when they engage in shared consumer experiences, such as splitting the check at dinner or sharing expenses while on a road trip. As friends, roommates, family members, and co-workers do more things together, there can be confusion and conflict over who owes what. Obopay removes the conflict and confusion from shared consumer experiences.

Take a look at www.obopay.com for more information

After writing a previous post on KushCash, Obopay and PayPal mobile, I received a lot of feedback from the community and the companies involved. Here are a few quesitons I asked Kevin Malone from KushCash.com
The question I think is on everyones lips is - How is KushCash different from your competitors?

What we offer is very different than the other players in the field. Not only do we have the ability to send money through the web and mobile interface, but we have successfully implemented a “Social Lending Network”. Users can report loans and IOU’s that have been made by friends and borrow money from their peers. We’re in a completely different realm than companies that people try to compare us with.

Sure, “mobile wallet” is the buzzword, but once you actually use our system, you can clearly see a difference. We offer easy payments through our website, as an application on your phone or accessible through your mobile Internet browser.

PayPal is a corporate giant; and they have no need to push new products and others have had to “acquire” other sites in order to catch up to the features that we’ve already created, we’ve been building features and have had the current system operational for a long time, and there’s much more on the horizon that we haven’t even released!

Our mobile wallet feature is a much desired add-on for any web based interaction, since most of the money lent, borrowed or spent is done while “on-the-go”. The whole site has been redone in a much more user friendly manner and we have more in store in the near future. The big difference is that KushCash is keeping the entrepreneurial spirit, and we might do some things that “corporate” entities will find odd or awkward-but we are a creative and dedicated group of people who know exactly what we want to offer to the world and how to implement our features in a safe and secure manner. Furthermore KushCash is carrier agnostic so we don’t have to deal with the Mafia like methods of the wireless space. KushCash Mobile is available on every phone that has internet access. If the phone supports Java, we have a standalone application.

Currently the service is only available in the U.S. Do you plan on expanding to other countries?

We are currently in talks with Canadian, South American, European and Asian markets. There’s a lot of interest and a strong possibility we’ll be found in multiple countries within the next year.

Are we going to see any new features down the track?

KushCash is a developing hub, and we have Java programmers up to our knees, all of which come from the banking, credit card and mobile phone industries, so yes, you will see many, MANY new features in the future.

And finally, I can think of lots of opportunities for a company like this to partner with retail outlets etc. Is this something KushCash will look to do in the future?

We are in talks with large retail outlets and will be rolling our best test results shortly.

I got in touch with Michael Mahemoff from Quizr.com and asked him a few questions about this new web 2.0 site.

So whats your elevator pitch for Quizr?

Quizr is a platform for quizzes, meaning that anyone can make a quiz, take a quiz, and share a quiz with other users. Topics range from fun trivia quizzes to educational and professional content, whatever users are interested in. There are lots of sites and companies that offer one-off quizzes, like a driving instructor offering a trial driver’s license quiz, and it’s insane that each of them has to build their own application to go with it. Quizr leverages modern web technologies such as Ajax and RSS to make the experience more compelling for both users and creators.

Why Quizzes? There are currently sites like this on the web - How is Quizr different?

Quiz sites have been around for years, and indeed, some sites let users build quizzes too. But two factors are different here: the technologies and the modern features. Technology-wise, there is heavy use of Ajax to make quiz editing intuitive and quiz-taking fast and fun. Ajax also makes it easier to track scoring, so that stats can be gathered and progress can be tracked.

In terms of features, there’s an emphasis on recent concepts like tagging, social networking, and the long tail. These sound like hype terms, but they genuinely make the experience more compelling. For instance, a user can finish one quiz and use quiz tags to find related quizzes. If users want, they can open up their quiz performances so others can see their progress, and soon there will be a groups feature to support collaborative development of quizzes.

As far as I am aware, Quizr looks to be a one man show. Are you planning to expand?

Right. I first thought of doing Quizr 18 months ago, while writing Ajax Design Patterns, toyed with some prototypes back then, and have spent the past few months coding it. It’s a one-man show as far as development goes, but I’ve established partners to help with editorial aspects and site design. At this stage, I’m happy to stay lean and agile, stay in tuned with users’ needs, and make a call on expanding Quizr as the need arises.

One feature I would like to see is the ability to embed quizzes into my site. Is something like this a future possibility?

Definitely. Embedding and really any kind of application based on quiz data. An API to support any kind of external usage is a high priority. There’s no way I alone, will be able to determine all of the neat uses for this content…let alone actually develop them! I can envision various cool games and applications, but I’m keen to see what others come up with. I’m designing the API now and I’d encourage any interested developers to contact me about any particular needs they might have.
Quizr is currently in private beta. Do you have any idea when the site will be available to the public?

In about two weeks. The main constraint is server load. Quizr’s a Rails app, which makes load a bit heavier and a bit more difficult to predict. Any plans to monetize Quizr down the track? Yes. Beyond the obvious - advertising - I aim to establish a quiz marketplace, where quiz creators can optional sell access to premium-content quizzes. This way, quiz developers can focus on quiz content instead of writing their own applications, and users - such as students and professionals - can obtain premium content in a quick and reliable manner.

Take a look at www.quizr.com to see a screencast of the site

I talked about ZapTxt.com in a previous article on how to RSS and now here is my followup interview with Sameer Patel from this very exciting startup.

What is your role at ZapTXT?

I am co-founder, along with Eduard Sherstnev. My current role is to map the needs of our user and publisher community with our functional roadmap.

What is your elevator pitch fo ZapTXT?

 For consumers: ZapTXT lets you create custom searches across your trusted RSS-enabled sites (or OPML file) and sends you an alert via trusted Email, Instant Messenger or SMS when we find a match in the headlines. For example, a cancer patient can monitor “Herceptin” across a number of cancer blogs, the NYT health section, and the FDA’s approval site. Or Silicon Valley dealmakers can track “Google and acquisition” only on VentureBeat, Feld Thoughts and Infectious Greed.

For publishers: Most content consumers do not know what RSS is, let alone use an RSS reader. ZapTXT creates simple tools for your site that shields readers from knowing the technicalities of syndicating and consuming RSS feeds by enabling alert capabilities via mainstream delivery mechanisms such as Email, IM or Mobile Alerts. Users opt-in and decide what delivery mechanism is most applicable for each task and our alerts send the reader right back to a publishers site to consume the full article.

How long has the site been online?

We had a raw application available until August of 2006 at which point we released a formal consumer application that you see today. The development of the current release has a heavy emphasis on usability for the mainstream user, topical search and tag sharing so users can discover the best ‘need to know now’ feeds for specific information types and finally, sharing of ZapTasks with colleagues.

What is more popular in terms of users receiving content. IM, Mobile or Email?

It depends on what people are using it for. Classifieds or gadget review sites have high Email and SMS alert usage for example. Information workers such as Journalists, PR and marketing professionals or Event/Concert goers that need to know about a new development as soon as possible elect to use IM and SMS alerts.

How can publishers integrate ZapTXT into their website?

We are very excited about the publisher features that we just released. We are huge advocates of RSS as you can imagine but we strongly believe that one of the bottlenecks for RSS proliferation is the notion that RSS content needs to be consumed in a traditional RSS reader. That in our opinion is what’s under sells the value and promise of RSS. For example: An update to a feed that monitors surf conditions at your favorite beach or the availability of an item for sale on eBay Stores is going to be useless information very soon after the information breaks. So having it collect in your feed reader doesn’t do you much good. With ZapTXT we a) eliminate the need for a publishers reader base to know what RSS with auto discovery and b) we bring the information to the users where ever they are and when they choose to consume it.

 By adding a few lines of JavaScript from us, any RSS-enabled site can provide ZapTXT’s alert management features to its reader base in a few minutes. As part of this release, we have also announced an analytics program that is in beta (more on that below). More information on our publisher program can be found here: http://zaptxt.com/home/publisher.

 We currently offer 2 features that a blogger or a website publisher can use: Monitoring new posts: By adding the ZapTXT button, a blogger or publisher of any RSS-enabled site allows its user base to filter headlines and receive alerts via Email, IM or Mobile as soon as we find a match. We send users a brief description and a link to the original story that drives traffic right back to the web site. Our analytics program allows us to provide valuable data to our publisher community that can inform editorial strategy and increase ad revenue. Examples include what types of content your readers expected to see, how often they found a match and what types of content was deemed urgent enough to receive IM or SMS messages.

Monitor comments: With ZapTXT, a publisher can keep conversations going on posts that have long left the front page. Users create alerts for comments on posts that they want to monitor and get an alert as soon as there’s activity. Our tests have shown that readers often comment weeks after a post was written. So this becomes an effective tool to drive eyeballs to pages that were considered perished ad inventory. For the consumer of a publishers content, ZapTXT is now doing the monitoring of archived pages for new comments so the reader doesn’t have to remember to dig up old posts.

Is ZapTXT expanding? Will we see more features in the future?

Yes absolutely. We have a host of features in the pipe and we are currently working with our user and publisher community to prioritize this list. There’s a lot of opportunity out there and whilst its tempting to do cool, whiz-bang stuff, there’s a lot to be done by RSS advocates like us to really bring the power of this technology to the mainstream user. We are focused on playing a leading role in this endeavor.  

To find out more check out www.zaptxt.com

Technorati Tags: Zaptxt, RSS, Alerts, Interview

Here is my interview with Kaitlyn for http://www.askitonline.com/ a new web app used for creating and taking surveys online.

What is your role at askitonline.com?

I am the creator, designer and programmer! It’s a one-WOMAN show (at least for now).

What is your elevator pitch for askitonline.com?

AskItOnline allows you to create and take surveys online. Using newer technologies like AJAX, the interface is very easy for the end user. The survey editor uses a drag ‘n’ drop interface for efficient survey editing.

There are currently a number of other websites that offer a relatively similar service. Whats different about askitonline?

Although AskItOnline is still in development, we are adding new features daily. We aim to match and exceed every single feature offered by the competition. One of our biggest strengths is the use of modern technologies (i.e. ajax, scriptaculous) which allows the application to function and act more naturally. Our drag ‘n’ drop interface makes it extremely easy to create a multi-page, complex survey in minutes, compared to hours (or even longer) with similar websites.

How long has the site been online?

The site has been active since November 10th, 2006 and entered private beta on November 20th, 2006. Alongside our private beta testers, we will development the remaining sections of the application exactly how “most users” would want it. Of course, we will also be improving or fixing currently implemented features if necessary.

Can you reveal a date as to when AskItOnline will come out of private beta?

 Because we are still in development and the feature set is limitless, it’s extremely difficult to predict when we may be ready for the public. Nevertheless, a personal goal of mine is to have AskItOnline.com ready for the public by Christmas day. This is, however, just a personal goal and we would also need to see how future development goes.

Will we see the website expand? Do you have any new features planned?

The website will grow each day. Even if you are not one of the private beta testers, you can check back regularly for updates on our progress. Even after we go public, we have a LOT of great ideas to add to the website, but those will need to stay secret for a bit longer! In a general sense, we hope to make the website more social, and also appeal to the single website owner as well as major corporations needing professional surveys with extensive analysis.

Take a look at www.askitonline.com

I am currently taking a look at AskItOnline.com and will write a full review here soon!  At first impressions it’s a great site with a lot cool features.  Something to keep an eye on!

Here is my interview with Dan Zambonini of Box UK - The web agency behind Clickdensity 

What’s your role at clickdensity?

I’m Technical Director of Box UK, the web agency behind clickdensity. I oversee the technical aspects of the product, help to design and prioritise new features, and communicate with the development, operations and marketing side of things, to ensure everything runs smoothly together. I’m basically the Product Manager.

What is your elevator pitch for clickdensity?

clickdensity is an integrated suite of next-generation Usability tools, that help you make a better, more profitable website. It offers real, meaningful insights into the trends and patterns of your website visitors, at an extremely low cost. And it gets more features by the month.

How long has clickdensity been online?

The service went live in June 2006 after a beta testing period, although it had a web presence a few months before that. So we’ve had about 6 months of providing ‘live’ service now.

Was clickdensity the first company to create a “heatmap application” and if so where did you get the idea of such a concept?

clickdensity was the first live heat-map service to be launched. We’re pretty sure that when we first started creating heat-maps of website clicks (November 2005), no-one else was doing it.

We got the idea back in early November 2005, when we were working in partnership with a Usability consultancy. We were working on optimising an insurance application form for a multi-national bank, and the usability consultants were talking about the results from their usability workshops.

As they talked about the process of how they analysed the videos of people using the websites, it became clear to me that there was some obvious (automatic) data not being analysed, which had to be painstakingly examined by eye. The consultants were watching where people were clicking on each page (not actually on links, but on specific form fields within a form), and it occurred to me that this kind of data could very easily be collected and visualised.

We created a simple prototype system (using PHP), and initially just deployed it onto some of our existing customers’ websites, purely out of interest (I eventually blogged about some of these results (here)

It became apparent very quickly that more and more people were interested in seeing similar data/reports for their websites, so we then decided to ‘productize’ it, into something that was very easy for people to install and run on their own websites; hence clickdensity as you see it today.

We went through a few iterations of architecture and technology (from PHP to Ruby, then finally to .NET) during this process, to ensure that our final product offered the best performance and flexibility in the long-term.

There are a couple of other similar websites online. Does clickdensity have any unique features?

There used to just be two main contenders (clickdensity and crazyegg), but in the last month or two, we’ve seen at least four or five new competitors come on to the market. Of course, we keep a careful eye on the features that each service offers (in fact, we track feature-sets using http://competitio.us/, a pretty handy tool).

With that in mind, I can confidently tell you that we have many, many unique features in this area! In fact, I’m surprised by how basic many of the latest offerings are; I certainly wouldn’t look to enter an existing market unless I could offer something new or different.

I’ll run you through some of the obvious features that we have, that you won’t find in most (if any) of the competition:

• Dynamic filtering of reports. This seems like an obvious one to me, but so many of the competing sites just produce ‘static’ heat maps, that you can’t filter (by browser, screen resolution, date range, etc).
• Task Completion analysis. You can filter reports by ‘Came From’ a specific URL, and/or ‘Went To’ a specific URL, so you can see (for example) only the clicks of people who eventually went on to purchase something on your website.
• Dynamic page support. Most of the competitors take a ‘screen-shot’ of your website when you start recording clicks, which means any changes you make to your website cause problems. All our reports are shown overlaid on your actual site, and you can use the ‘Follow Targets’ feature to ensure that clicks track parts of the page, even if they move.
• A completely unique, accessible, integrated A/B Testing suite. You really have to try this out – we’ve been amazed by the results! It lets you very easily try changes to individual items on your page (an image, link, or heading, for example), and analyze what difference this makes to click-throughs, etc.
• IP Filtering. So that you can remove any clicks that you (or your organisation) makes.
• Virtual Pages. A bit of a techy one, which I won’t go in to, but basically lets you configure reports so that if a page has a single URL but can display different contents (e.g. a page that either says ‘success’ or ‘failure’), these can be reported on separately.
• Similarly, we’ve got pretty comprehensive support for different types of URLs (with/without query strings, session ids, etc).
• I think we’re the only people to record the ‘text size’ setting that people use, and allow filtering by that.
• Similarly, I think only clickdensity records (and allows segmentation by) ‘click time’ of clicks (i.e. how long it takes – from page load – for visitors to click on something). This allows website owners to discover a bit more detail about their visitor behaviour. For example, a major high-street retailer originally thought that their ‘search’ function was used by a certain type of user, who didn’t even try to browse for items, but went straight into the ‘search’. Using clickdensity ‘click-time’ reports, they then discovered that most people didn’t click into the search box until 30 seconds after page-load, suggesting that most ‘search’ users try to find information on the current page before resorting to a search. This highlighted a problem with their IA and labelling, which has since been fixed.
• Some little niceties that we have: show page folds, exporting to screenshots, automatic PDF receipts, click limits, page level stats, adjustable transparency, HTTPS support, and…. I’ll stop here before your readers get bored!

Are you worried about upcoming competition in this area?

Well, as you can see from my previous list, we’re pretty confident that we have a good head-start!

Having said that - of course we’re worried about upcoming competition. I think every great company is worried about competition, which is what makes them produce consistently brilliant and innovative output.

We certainly aren’t resting on our laurels, which is why you’ll see that we release new features every few weeks.

Can you reveal any “big” clients that currently use clickdensity?

Obviously we have to respect the confidentiality of our customers, so I can’t give you all the names I’d like to! What I can say (given the permission we have been granted) is that we have some extremely large brands using it, ranging from Britvic (owner of Pepsi), through to a world bank and a global supermarket chain. The feedback from these organisations – who are used to paying tens of thousands of dollars for similar results – has been outstanding! It makes us very proud of what we’re doing.

 Will we see any more features in the future? Will the site expand?

Oh yes! We’ve pretty much doubled our feature-set in the last 6 months (since launch), and have plenty of ideas and designs for incredible new functionality… Our road-map currently has about a year-and-a-half’s worth of new features on it, and our user base is really good at sending us new suggestions, which is great.

I get the impression that lots of the competitors’ services are ‘side-projects’, which are being developed on an ad-hoc basis in free time. As Box UK is a 30-strong company, with a vast array of experience (including UI and IA design, development, and project management), we’re able to dedicate resources to clickdensity full-time, and develop and manage it efficiently.

I don’t want to give away too much about our new features, but there’s a certain new feature that I’m particularly excited about, called “User Gap Analysis”, which is going to blow your mind! We think it’s going be so revolutionary that it will probably be imitated even more than heat maps…

And finally a personal question. Do you have any favorite blogs you read that you would like to suggest to the community?

Well, of course I first have to recommend my own O’Reilly blog (http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/2379)! The blogs I read daily are pretty well-known; Boing Boing, Martin Fowler, O’Reilly, Techcrunch, Radar, Mashable and (non-work related) Pitchfork. It’s not really a blog, but I’ll also check to see what’s happening on digg every few hours. Oh, and vitamin too.

To Find out more about ClickDensity visit www.clickdenisty.com

Technorati Tags: Clickdensity, Heatmaps, Statistics, Tracking, Interview