There’s a lot to like about Seesmic, the so-called video equivalent of Twitter, besides the charismatic founder Loic Le Meur, “in cloud” talent like Sukhjit and Giselle, and the people you meet “face-to-face” through video posting and commenting.
But there is one thing not to like: the lack of take-it-with-you mobility. To use Seesmic you’re mostly tethered to a desktop or laptop computer with a Webcam. You can use a cell-phone workaround like Shozu, but it can be cumbersome, working for some, not for others. Many people are hyper-mobile and participating in Seesmic is difficult, at least during the day.
This is all about to change. Over the next four to six weeks, Le Meur said following the Supernova conference, Seesmic will release its own bi-directional client for the Nokia series-60 phones including the N95. A hack for the iPhone 3G (jailbreaking it) will soon follow, as will a client for phones running Windows Mobile (and, it can be assumed, Android when they become available).
“In a few weeks we will have our own mobile client, which will let you have a full Seesmic experience,” Le Meur said.
The full Seesmic experience includes a two-way conversation. You record and upload video posts to the Seesmic Website (as well as other leading video sharing sites like YouTube and social network sites like MySpace and Facebook) that others can follow like Twitter. The community, including friends and strangers from all around the world, can comment on your post, and you on their’s.
“Many of the video blogging tools, whether they are live or not, are broadcasting one way,” Le Meur said. “I think this is a mistake. I think we should enable both ways.
“On our client we will have your video and your friends in your pocket. You can reply and stream to them but also listen.”
Seesmic, a start-up founded by successful European entrepreneur Le Meur, focused by design on the Web first. Mobile has been in the plan from the start, but it suffers from technological obstacles like slow bandwidth.
With 3G coming to the iPhone and Android-powered devices, and with 3G already pervasive overseas on Nokia phones, the time has come for Seesmic to introduce a mobile client so you can record and post new videos or simply view others on a cell phone.
“I think it will change the way people interact with Seesmic,” Le Meur said.
Seesmic is an odd duck. It’s not “traditional” Web TV like “LonelyGirl 15″ or a ‘Net show produced by Revision 3. It’s mostly average people posting short video clips and commenting on topics started by others, a video equivalent of Twitter. You can subscribe to people, and if they return the favor, you become friends and can keep up with each other’s posts.
And yet there is this quality about Seesmic that catches your attention and the next thing you know you’ve watch a half an hour of clips instead of something on network TV or elsewhere on the Web. The clips can be weirdly sitcom, documentary, opinionated, goofy, arcane, and crude but always honest.
Le Meur notes that many Seesmic subscribers simply drop by to watch what others are doing and saying and not participating themselves — at least not at first.
“Video in conversation changes a lot because it (previous commenting methods) didn’t have a face,” Le Meur said. “What we like with Seesmic is that people can meet their readers and can meet the people they talk to. “
And soon they will be able to do this on the go.
[In other Seesmic news, Le Meur debuts a new threaded player.]
