TwitPic Founder Launches Twitter Carbon Copy
TwitPic founder Noah Everett has launched a new microblogging platform, called Heello, on Thursday.
The platform is strikingly similar to Twitter in premise, layout and blogging style, and ironically was launched just one day after Twitter announced that it would be establishing its own photo-sharing service, which would directly rival with TwitPic.
Heello's interface views like a mirror image of Twitter. While the pastel blue and white decor remains the same, where Twitter's feed lists on the left, Heello's feed lists on the right. Twitter's cloud covered background is replaced with a plain blue one, but a cloud serves as the "mascot" for Heello, instead an inquisitive bird like Twitter's.
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Instead of followers, Heello has "listeners," who "ping" instead of tweet, and "echo" instead of re-tweet.
Among the things that have remained exactly the same however, at the "@" symbol and the 140 character limit for "pings."
Ryan Ozawa, a Twitter user who has joined Heello and goes by @hawaii on both platforms, re-tweeted a his own ping saying, "As Twitter replicates @Twitpic's key feature, Twitpic founder @NoahEverett launches @Heello, which is like Twitter, but not."
There has been speculation that Everett launched the site on this date as a revenge tactic against Twitter, but the web developer insists that it was completely coincidental, stating that he started the Helloo company a year ago on the date, and wanted to commemorate the anniversary. August 11 also happens to be Everett's birthday, which he announced on his Twitter page.
Further development of the site will introduce video and texting as well as "channels," a feature that lets listeners share things with groups of other users, and is very similar to circles on Google+.
Twitter users have had mixed reviews about the new platform and many have noted the similarities between the two microblogging websites.
"G+ing about heello.com & posting on FB about how i saved @justinbieber on heello.com. Yes, now tweeting the recap. LOL," @katebuckjr, Kate Buck Jr tweeted.
While some are enamored by the new social media platform, some feel that all the options are a bit redundant.
"Friendster, Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Google+, and now: heello. What's next? Who will be the survival of the fittest?" tweeted @aMrazing, Alexander Thian.
He later tweeted, "I think I'll stick to Twitter. Heello's platform is so unoriginal, a Twitter wannabe social network."
