PR man James Warren emailed me to ask if I’d look at the beta version of izimi, one of his clients, and write about it on my blog. Since it’s the sort of Web 2.0 application that twopointouch is about, I’m game.
It’s a social-network-cum-file-sharing site. You get a desktop application (Windows only at the moment) which you can use to link to pretty much anything you like. Any type of file can be added to your account. The trick is that you don’t actually upload the files; they’re served from your own PC using the desktop application via links on your izimi account.
Here’s an example:
http://www.izimi.com/profile/content/default.aspx?id=617
It’s a PDF of a report about online news. It’s a web link, but if you click on it, it will be sent to you from my home computer. You — the recipient of the file — don’t need the desktop application, by the way, just a web browser.
That’s a good thing because it means there are no file size limits and no bandwidth limits. You can use it to ‘virtually’ email very large files to other people — you actually email a link to the izimi representation of the file. You could also use it yourself to gain access to files on your home or office PC while you’re out and about. A bit like Avvenu, then. I can see this combination of online/offline applications becoming big in 2007: there’s already a PIM and a word processor in development and the increasing use of Adobe’s Apollo framework will only fuel this.
The potentially bad bits? Well, izimi is also a social network, so everything you publish is public. People can vote on your files and leave comments. Not so good, then, for that mobile access to your work documents scenario I described. Also, if I switch off my PC or close down the izimi application, then you won’t be able to get anything that I’ve published on the system.
Maybe better for picture and video sharing, then? Mmm.. the other issue is that upload speeds in the UK are generally poor, so if more than a couple of people want to download this at the same time, it might be a bit slow. You wouldn’t want to share a viral video smash hit this way. Also, what if I use izimi to publish pirated software or music? Or maybe some viruses? You have to click on a button that says you’re authorised to publish the file, but this is an anonymous system so I might lie.
Poking around others’ accounts, people seem to be mostly using it for photo sharing, which seems a reasonable use, especially since it’s free, except you don’t get the album organisation and resizing functions you get on flickr, etc. and the registration fees for a flickr pro account (and similar) are really very low.
I don’t really understand why izimi has these social networking functions — which are basically limited to friends, messages and comments, by the way. If it is a file-sharing app, then I need some privacy options. If it’s a social network, I need to be able to customise my page, add blog entries and generally make it my own. You could argue that it’s YouTube without the format and bandwidth restrictions, but frankly, YouTube’s restrictions are a strength. You go there for 5-minute Flash videos. That’s its brand and why it’s popular.
So… I think it’s really clever stuff, but I don’t really know if there’s any usage model that isn’t better catered for another way. If you can think of one, izimi’s public launch is on Monday 5th March.
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Ian, it took a long time for that PDF to arrive at my computer. So, you’ll need to upgrade to a proper server machine, with multiple ISP connections for redundancy, and a UPS with a diesel generator. I must ask also whether your home has been constructed to earthquake resistance standards.
As you might guess from the above, I think professionally managed centralized storage makes a lot more sense for most things. izimi may be of interest largely to those who haven’t made peace with the idea of handing over control of their files to other people — yet. While there are indeed risks in ceding such control, the advantages are so great that I expect more and more people to entrust their data to places like Gmail, blogspot (and other blog hosts), and Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Then I think izimi will lose its market. It may already be too late.
Hi Ian — thanks for your interest in izimi.
You raise quite a few points here! I will do my best to cover them all.
The site that was launched earlier today is just a base release. Many more enhancements and refinements are planned. In fact, izimi will never stop evolving.
This is particularly true with regards your first point — privacy. At present, all files are public but we will soon be bringing in the option to make the content you publish private, visible only to your izimi friends.
An extensive range of album/folder organisation tools are also in the pipeline.
True — if you turn off your PC, it will stop serving your stuff. But people are leaving their computers on more and more nowadays, and there are now more home servers out there, so we see this as less of an issue. But if you want people to see your content, why would you turn your machine off anyway? Even if you do, you still have a presence as your public profile remains visible.
With regards speed — most people use just a fraction of their upstream speed leaving plenty of capacity for izimi to work effectively. izimi doesn’t impact publishers’ downstream speed leaving you free to surf the internet as you normally would.
Pirated software, files that users don’t have a right to publish or content that is inappropriate is effectively dealt with by izimi’s sophisticated ‘black flagging’ system.
I’m glad you raise the issue of viruses. izimi works a bit like a one-way valve, and can only allow files to pass OUT from your PC – and then ONLY in response to correctly formed HTTP requests, and ONLY files that you have specifically published in izimi. izimi doesn’t allow incoming files or malformed requests to open up breaches, so a hacker can’t use izimi as a means to place a malicious file onto your PC.
izimi also respects your anti-virus software on your computer, so when you download izimi content, it doesn’t do anything that would circumvent your existing protection.
A lot is planned for izimi so watch this space!
All the best — John Wood, izimi
John — thank you very much for taking the trouble to respond to this post. Very much appreciated. I’ll be watching the development of izimi carefully — just the privacy tools would considerably raise its game in my eyes.
Yup — privacy tools are definitely on the way.
Many thanks — John Wood, izimi
Hello,
If you like Izimi, check out Quickeo. The software is based on have similar technology but much richer functionality — http://www.quickeo.com
I like it: thanks for the tip-off, Marc.
izimi has the benefit of a web page/social network aspect, I guess, to act as a hub for shared files, while Quickeo is purely email-based.
On balance, I still think when izimi add privacy options, then that would be preferable.
Ian,
Just to clarify, Quickeo is not purely email. The links to files are assembled into a nice looking email, but the viewing of any file happens in a browser, so that there is no attachments going through.
The files are currently for your friends only, because we believe this is what is the most appropriate for personal content. (for public info YouTube does fine).
We also provide a service to synchronize files with a hosted storage server if people do not wish to keep their PC on at all time.
You didn’t mention you were one of Quickeo’s makers — though I kind of thought you were. That would have been a little more transparent, eh.
It’s an interesting race. You’re private from the start (like Avvenu, that I mentioned in my post) and izimi is public from the start. izimi creates a profile page showing all your shared files is what I meant, when it comes to whether it’s email or browser-based.
Did not mean to hide the fact that I am involved with Quickeo, I should have clarified, sorry…