Robo.to: Video Caller Status Updates

For the incessant status updater there is now another way to keep track of your friends activities.  Enter Robo.to, the mobile service that allows visual status updates with 4-second videos and multi-platform integration.  It allows users to utilize the service as a digital calling card, giving details on recent updates right as the person calls.

Robo.to has attracted more than 100,000 users since it came out of private beta in August and it hopes to become the leading microvideo service on the web.  Justin Timberlake, a financial backer of the service, posts regular updates and boast over 800,000 followers, but it remains to be seen how this new format integrates with other ideas in a cluttered “statusphere.” 

Fast Company discusses the project with its developer, Rey Flemings,

“On Twitter, you can see what’s happening right now, but the photo you see has nothing do with what’s going on right now,” says Flemings. Robo.to works in conjunction with almost every major social network, from Twitter to Facebook to Flickr, so it coalesces all that stuff into a palette you can check out before or during a call. “The information you see will still be going on while you’re on the call,” he says, so while talking to your friend, you might be able to see that they’re on vacation in Mexico, or check out a picture of their new dog. “It’s conversational lubricant,” he says.

[via Fast Company]