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Originally published on 04/11/2002
I am a big fan of Vindigo, the city guide for Palm and Pocket PC handhelds. I'm so used to it, in fact, that even when I am sitting in front of a computer, when I want to look up a movie or a restaurant I'll dig into my shoulder bag to find my iPaq.
Fast Facts:
Serence
www.serence.com
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| CEO |
Allan Wille. Previous job: Chief creative officer & founder, Espial |
| HQ |
Ottawa, Ontario |
| Employees |
6 |
| Market |
Information delivery |
| Funding |
No outside funding yet; looking for $500,000 |
| Profitable |
No. Projected by Q3 2002 |
| Runway |
3-4 months without funding; first round projected to take company to profitability |
Vindigo is all about getting you the right information -- a short restaurant review, movie times, etc. -- where and when you need it, which usually is not while you're in front of a computer screen. The company's focus on the handheld platform makes perfect sense.
Studying Vindigo makes you realize how poorly suited a Web browser is to many kinds of information. Yet many companies that have tried to take the Web beyond the browser have flopped. There's PointCast (its push service stopped in 2000); DoDots (dead); Microsoft's ActiveDesktop (it's still in Windows XP, but buried); Yahoo's ticker (no longer supported); and of course WAP on cell phones, which is just awful.
But the idea of browserless Web content won't die, as the startup Serence shows. The company's product, KlipFolio, displays news tickers on the PC desktop; according to Serence, it is easy to publish content to KlipFolio "channels," and, unlike PointCast, the content can be stored on ordinary Web servers. Experimental Klips exist for Salon, Slashdot, News.com, and other sites.
I like the KlipFolio software -- I find the unobtrusive but persistent scrolling news tickers on my desktop useful. But I worry about Serence as a stand-alone business. History has not been kind to this concept, and the content companies Serence is targeting as customers are themselves under serious economic strain. I would not be surprised if the technology ultimately finds more-profitable application as a tool for corporate data dashboards, not online news.
- Rafe Needleman
email: rafe-needleman@catchoday.com
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