Goowy: The New File Sharing Network?
I read an article on techcrunch about a new Web 2.0 application that provides Instant Messaging and Online Storage features called Goowy. It makes me wonder why mashup an instant messaging and an online storage service? Communicate, Organize, Share — is Goowy’s tag line. Share! A moment later I realized that this system can be used as a new purely web-based file sharing application. No need to download annonying client software (Goowy does provide one if you really want it). Just launch a web browser and search through all the system for the files you want. Share!
The article summarizes the key features below:
Instant messaging compatibility is good (think Meebo - which I’ve written about here). You can use MSN, Yahoo, ICQ and AOL accounts or talk to other Goowy users directly. Setup was easy, and it worked flawlessly. A number of emoticons are supported. My only complaint is that the first message you send to anyone says “(Sent using goowy web messenger. Check it out at http://www.goowy.com )” which is annoying.
Online storage is a very nice feature add as well. They haven’t built this themselves. Instead they are using the box.net API on the back end. Goowy is giving every user 1 GB of free storage, with 5 GB for $5/month coming soon. Given the new pricing benchmarks set by Amazon recently, I expect these prices to come down over time. Goowy storage has a straightforward uploading tool, and files can be tagged and set to private, public or shared.
Other features include contacts, calendars and email. Although this sounds like a local nutritional drink endorsed by college ball players, it really does make filesharing within its system a bit easier. Since this is not a peer-to-peer file sharing system, Goowy would have to deal with the bandwidth (and storage) issues currently facing Flickr if they cannot monetize quickly.
