“Unlike Facebook, Color eliminates the acts of "friending" and selecting privacy settings. That's because when it is turned on, Color collects global positioning, gyroscope, ambient lighting and other data from phones to determine who else is in close proximity.
That means users will temporarily join the group of people at a birthday party or rock concert—even strangers on a train. Phones running the Color app automatically share photos and videos taken with other phones running Color nearby.
"Instead of seeing your friends online alone in front of a PC, we allow people to interact with each other in real life," said Mr. Nguyen, who previously founded online music start-up LaLa, which was acquired by Apple Inc. in 2009, among other companies.
Of the $41 million that Color raised, $25 million came from Sequoia and $9 million came from Bain Capital Ventures, with the rest from Silicon Valley Bank. "Color is at the confluence of the mobile, social and local phenomena," said Sequoia partner Doug Leone, of the 30-person start-up, which is seven months old.”
(From Twitter): Hi, Vinnie.
I agree with your list until you included Color Labs in innovation. In general, I'm just a bit weary of the parade of "clones" (deal sites, location services, etc.), "consumption-driven" sites ( the list is endless), and "vanity/exhibitionist/voyeur" plays being put forth as innovation, when we have so many REAL problems that the best and brightest could be (and are) working on.
There are definitely some innovations afoot in the social networking space - some of the most interesting are going less broadly connected and more towards "real" social networks.
Keep up the great work acting as my "firehose feed" for goings on in the world of innovation!
Rick
Posted by: Rick Bullotta | March 27, 2011 at 09:46 AM