Two weeks ago, Biz Stone introduced Jelly, a mobile app for iOS and Android that serves as an image-centric Q&A platform for socially connected mobile users.
“Using Jelly is kinda like using a conventional search engine in that you ask it stuff and it returns answers,” a blog entry on the Jelly website explained at launch. “But, that’s where the similarities end.”
“Jelly is designed to search the group mind of your social networks—and what goes around, comes around. You may find yourself answering questions as well as asking. You can help friends, or friends-of-friends with their questions and grow your collection of thank you cards. It feels good to help.”
“No matter how sophisticated our algorithms become, they are still no match for the experience, inventiveness, and creativity of the human mind,” the post continues. “Jelly is a new way to search and something more–it makes helping other people easy and fun. We hope you find Jelly as useful and rewarding as we do.”
Even though Jelly still has that new-app smell, marketers should already be taking it for a spin and looking for ways to interact with users over this new medium, which is expected (at least by some) to hit it big like Twitter.
“Ultimately, its simplicity is charming and speed is impressive but it must give the user value if they are to return and continue to use the service,” digital marketing expert Paul Armstrong was recently quoted. “Quora is a similar service but it required much more commitment from the user than Jelly and, if history is to be used, simplicity works well in the social and mobile spaces.”
Other experts say that marketers can use Jelly as an even more interactive way to present products and services to users via mobile, and because it can link to Facebook and Twitter, it will boost involvement there as well.