Color me unimpressed with Bill Nguyen's latest app
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 10:00AM Do you like to color? That term may take on new meaning with the release of the new iPhone & Android mobile photo sharing app, Color.
Developed by Bill Nguyen, Color allows you to share your videos, photos & text with people within 150 feet of you. And while you may be asking yourself, why you would want to do that, consider this: Remember the last time you were at a big family function like a reunion or wedding? Everyone was taking pics and video, right? To see those pics & video you probably had to wait until those were posted to Facebook.
With Color (or Colour for our UK friends) you would be able to see and save everyone's photos & videos who was using the Color app. This could be really cool at concerts and sports games. Some have even speculated how important Color could be for political revolutions (yes, Color can save the world).
Although you don't "friend" people with Color like you do with other social apps, it does create a network for you. Through its algorithm, Color senses when the same people are near each other over a period of time. When this happens, Color assumes that person must be a friend of yours and each of you become part of the other's network, allowing you to see photos even when you are not near that person.
But here's the rub (assuming all the features above sound appealing to you). Your photos and videos are available to anyone with the app within 150 feet. So, if you are in a park taking some snaps of the lil' kiddo, guess what? That weird guy on the bench with the smart phone is also seeing those pics. Or in the example above, just because someone near me is also using the app does not mean I am friends with them. As you can tell, privacy concerns are already an issue.
My gut tells me this will be a quick hit with high school and college kids (at least until someone launches a Web site that shows all the embarrassing pics and videos garnered through the app). Of course, Color is also going to have to overcome all those negative comments and ratings on both iTunes and Android Marketplace.
According to Nguyen, the business model revolves around advertising. In one scenario mentioned in a Computerworld article, restaurants with a lot of foot traffic could take pics of their plates. Presumably, people passing by outside could see those food pics on their phone. Of course, they could just buy a digital picture frame or flat screen, and put that in the window. But I guess that's not social or app or cool or something.
As Nguyen mentions in a CNN video, he is looking to selling hyper-local advertising. Using the restaurant analogy again, while you were in the restaurant taking pictures, you would receive an ad for that restaurant. Then again, if I am already in the restaurant, what good does an advertisement do? This doesn't seem to make much sense. Mike Elgan at Cult of Mac actually makes a better case for Color than does Nguyen (although it is still not too convincing).
The fact that Color secured 41 million dollars in funding has spurred attention in the product. (They also paid close to 500K for the domain names color.com and colour.com) However, in my mind, Color has limited usefulness. (although this idea from Gizmodo is pretty funny.)Yes, it would be cool for major events, etc. But do you really want 50 strangers in your vicinity seeing all the pics on your mobile device? I know I don't. And if it means that I won't get every picture taken at whatever venue I am attending, I can live with that.
What do you think? Will you use Color? Are you using it now?
Are you willing to sacrifice more than a little privacy to mob-capture events with friends and strangers?
Kevin Duffy is the Creative Director for The Duffy Agency's Boston office.
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