Nellymoser upgrades platform for widgets, in-app ads

By Mickey Alam Khan

April 14, 2008

Cool tools

Mobile services firm Nellymoser Inc. released the latest version of its platform that combines Web 2.0 features with mobility requirements.

The Boston company’s Version 3.5 platform is said to deliver cross-platform mobile services and in-application advertising to publishers, wireless carriers and Web development firms.

“We believe that the key drivers for rich, interactive mobile services – what we’re calling Mobile 2.0 – strongly parallel the drivers that led to the growth in Web 2.0,” said John Puterbaugh, founder and chief strategist at Nellymoser.

Those drivers, he pointed out, are ubiquitous broadband availability, frictionless distribution and open enabling tools and technology for service creation.

To that end, Nellymoser added three features in its 3.5 platform release.

The first is the capability to deploy services that can be extended dynamically via widgets and microsites, Mr. Puterbaugh said.

This means that Nellymoser’s target customers – content providers and carriers – are able to deploy branded personalized Mobile 2.0 services in which their customers and any other third-party can extend themselves by creating their own widgets.

Second is the support for cross-platform services. Nellymoser has developed APIs that enable developers to access content such as feeds, rich media and metadata as well as data including user profiles and preferences from its services.

These APIs can be used to create companion services online and on set-tops or create plug-ins and applications for social networks, Mr. Puterbaugh said.

The third feature is in-application advertising.

Given the success of applications from both content providers and carriers such as Yahoo Go, Google Maps, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint, the ability to have integrated advertising and promotions is critical to providing a consistent and compelling user experience, Mr. Puterbaugh said.

In-application advertising enables Nellymoser’s customers to leverage existing ad networks – e.g., both online and mobile – and deliver a wide range of media and responses tied to the key mobile consumer touch-points such as talking, texting, capturing, listening and viewing.

“After reviewing the available tools in mobile it was clear that they were difficult and hard to use, unaffordable and proprietary,” Mr. Puterbaugh claims. “Developers must be able to use standard tools and technologies to create and deploy services in mobile.

“We also provide the ability for developers to leverage our investment in infrastructure and connectivity – for example, billing, messaging, ad deliver and search – which gives them the ability to maximize distribution and guarantee high availability to their customers,” he said.

“Our goal this year is to make it easy for developers to use standard Web tools and technologies to rapidly create and deploy services across the fragmented array of networks, devices and formats.”