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Before JOOST, there was FireAnt

This is going to be a relatively quick post as I’m at work, up to my eyeballs. That being said, I was skimming Wired this morning and came across an article about Josh Kinberg - a protester who at the 2004 Republican National Convention in NYC created a “dot matrix sidewalk printer bike” - as he rode it around, it printed messages (in water soluble chalk) that people texted to the bike. Of course, he was arrested (read the Wired story), the NYPD are a bunch of freedom-hating goons, and so on.

But - that’s not where Kinberg’s story ends. As the article mentions, he’s now on the opposite coast, involved (as in “founder and ceo”) in a “social media” project called FireAnt.

FireAnt is a desktop media player and RSS aggregator for Windows and Mac. With an integrated guide to Internet TV, the FireAnt player lets users subscribe to, download, and watch videos in multiple media formats, and synchronize video with portable devices, including iPod, PSP, Zen, Archos, Zune, and mobile phones. [from FireAnt > About]

That sounds a lot like JOOST to me, albeit without the major network relationships & content. And, FireAnt, in its current incarnation, has been available since January of ‘06, when it got a glowing review from TC.

Unfortunately, FireAnt appears to be stagnating. Take a look at Alexa and Compete - JOOST hasn’t even launched, and its flattened FireAnt’s very modest growth.

Perhaps its their confusing brand strategy. The site is at “getfireant.com,” though the page title refers to “fireant.tv.” “antisnottv.com” is also floating around out there - it took me a while to parse that out as “ant - is - not - tv.” Perhaps that confrontational relationship with the mainstream consumer’s desired experience (i.e.: watching TV) is why JOOST is buzz-worthy and FireAnt is flat. People like TV. They’re used to it, they know what to expect - its comfortable. JOOST is iterating TV - keeping it comfy and recognizeable, but also recognizably better enough to drive adoption. It appears FireAnt hasn’t found this balance yet.

All of that being said: I’m not going to be able to download and try out the FireAnt application until tonite. Has anyone out there tried it? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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