We are happy to relay this news and hope you are as well. While the founding team/management will be moving on, we are glad the kwiry service will continue to grow.

The service is being transitioned and should be fully functional again very soon, even within a few days at some point (unfortunately it seems that working with the wireless carriers to reactivate the text messaging shortcode will be necessary).

Thanks also for all your messages of support during the past few weeks,
-Ron, Steve & Nabil

From now until April 23, you can download all of your past kwirys in .csv format (can be opened in Excel as a spreadsheet) once you login.

We want to thank our wonderful and supportive investors at Hummer Winblad, our board of advisors and our partners.  Also, we couldn’t have done any of this without the tireless support of our friends and family during the last few years.

Thanks for being part of the kwiry community,

-Ron, Steve & Nabil

Q&A

When will kwiry be shut down?

kwiry will stop accepting new users immediately and will shut down completely on April 23 at 12AM PDT.

How do I get my data?

Click here to download a .csv (spreadsheet) file with all of your kwirys.

What services can I use instead of kwiry?

While we don’t think anyone else out there has a service like kwiry’s - here are some other services that you might find useful to replace some of the ways that you use kwiry:

Remember the Milk (www.rememberthemilk.com)
Evernote (www.evernote.com)
Jott (www.jott.com)
Dial2Do (www.dial2do.com)
Reqall  (http://www.reqall.com/)
Netflix services (http://developer.netflix.com/forum/topics/28967)
TiVo (m.tivo.com, http://i.tv/)
Status updating (http://ping.fm/)
Contacts (www.dropcard.com, http://www.contxts.com/)
Textmarks (www.textmarks.com)

More questions?

Go to www.kwiry.com/help or send an e-mail to feedback@kwiry.com.

So - we built a few very simple ways to let you create kwirys on your computer.

• AIM: Link your AOL Instant Messenger account at kwiry here. Then add “imkwiry” as a buddy/friend on AIM and send kwirys to it just like you would via SMS, e-mail, etc.
• Twitter: You now have two ways to send in kwirys via Twitter.  You can send a direct message, e.g. “d kwiry _______” or now you can use an @reply message, e.g.”@kwiry ____”. Link your Twitter Account to kwiry here.
• Toolbar: Install the kwiry Toolbar for Firefox or Internet Explorer. Click here.

Why are these useful? Here’s a few reasons:

• Use kwiry Shortcuts while in front of your computer to quickly get things done (like the aforementioned Netflix, TiVo, status updates).
• Use mobile IM or mobile Twitter applications to send in kwirys from your phone and save money on text messaging. (see our blog post about Mobile IM and SMS)
• For International kwiry users: Send kwirys via a Twitter international text messaging Shortcode or an AIM or Twitter mobile application.

Some other new stuff:

• We’ve made some improvements to the kwirys page.  You can now delete or change the privacy of each kwiry right from this page, in addition to at the All My kwirys page.
• Check out our kwiry bookmarklet at the kwiry Tools page. You can use it with the kwiry Toolbar or by itself on your bookmarks toolbar in your browser.  No you can use kwiry to bookmark sites you’d like to save online.

Need more info? Check out our Learn More or FAQ or e-mail us at feedback@kwiry.com.

MG Siegler at VentureBeat wrote an interesting post last week about text messaging pricing. He speculated that the introduction of the Push notification functionality in the new iPhone 3.0 software this summer could finally put pressure on At&t and/or all carriers to lower fees for SMS.   I wrote about text messaging prices a while back.

Seems like not much has changed though. MG makes a good point that the Push Notification service will make Mobile IM (Meebo app was demonstrated at the Apple event & pictured here) a much more feasible alternative for iPhone users, a fast-growing segment of mobile users.  I agree that folks will try to use mobile IM to circumvent paying for SMS, particualrly with other friends who use the iPhone.  I know lots Blackberry-owners who do the same with Blackberry Messenger. The challenge of course will be messaging all those folks who don’t use Mobile IM, it’s the ubiquity of SMS, amongst other things that makes it so useful. So people will still have to use SMS for some of their contacts at least.  Will be interesting to see if enough traffic gets siphoned off for the carriers to take notice and reduce the price points.

On a slightly unrelated note, a funny cartoon about text messaging from the WSJ is below.

The envelope please…. The rank order of popularity of Netflix kwirys:

1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

2. Slumdog Millioinaire

3 (tied). Milk

3 (tied). The Reader

5. Frost Nixon

Let’s see how well kwiry users’ interests mesh with who wins!!

At&t published a [somewhat confusing] survey showing that 36% of  respondents intended to send text message Valentines day messages this year in the US, 67 percent of those folks planned to also give/send a real Valentines card as well.  It seems that At&t has a whole set of marketing messages related to texting, including their own “textpert” who can be seen on this non-embeddable video here talking about texting dos and don’ts.

(image source: http://xkcd.com/)

This discussion continues a general theme lately about folks noticing SMS as a tool for romantic chatting of one sort or another. We wrote about it back in May and posted a funny animated clip about it.

Katie Couric reported back in November that over 68% of Americans have sent love notes via text. (looks like this was also based on an At&t survey). Some call it flirting but others call it “sexting”when they think it crosses the line.

From Switched.com:

Researchers from Teenage Research Unlimited have finally put some hard numbers to the anecdotes about teens getting themselves in trouble with revealing photos.

According to the study, commissioned by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com, 22-percent of teenage girls and 18-percent of boys have taken nude or semi-nude photos of themselves and sent them to someone or posted them online. And a third of young adults (20-26 years old) have done the same.

Young adults and teens view sending these photos and suggestive text messages as simple digital flirting. 39-percent of teens and 59-precent of those young adults say they’ve sent naughty texts a means of flirting.

Another Valentines day survey was commissioned by Virgin Mobile in Canada.Via Textually:

A survey of Canadian cell phone users found 56 percent of them would rather hold their cell phone than a special person on Valentine’s Day. Guess who ordered the survey? Virgin Mobile. So much for credibility. But the title was catchy from UPI.

Last week, Angus Reid Strategies polled 1,000 mobile phone users over the age of 18 across Canada and asked about their attitudes towards the devices and special people in their lives in advance of Feb. 14.The Virgin Mobile survey found 52 percent saying their phone is with them all day, every day, and if push came to shove, almost 40 percent would rather spend a week without their special partner than be without the phone for a week.

The deepest attachment to phones versus people was found among the 18-34 age bracket, the release said.

So what can we conclude?

1. Carriers like text messaging, seems that it makes them a bit of money.

2. People like using texting to communicate romantically.

3. Journalists like surveys, even confusing ones with questionable goals/sponsors/results.

Did I miss anything?

We’ve had such a great response to our previous shortcuts including Netflix and Amazon, that we’ve built a bunch of others!  We had lots of requests and these were some of the most popular.

Text “tivo lost” to schedule a recording of the next episode to your TiVo DVR.

Text “yelp Grimaldis Pizza” and get contact info, reviews and more from Yelp sent to your e-mail inbox.

Text “status headed to the gym” and kwiry will update your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts.

Text “contact johndoe@gmail.com” to email contact info and Vcard attachment while on the go.

Click here to activate the Tivo, Status and Contact Shortcuts.

Don’t forget, every time you use a kwiry Shortcut, you’re eligible for weekly prizes as detailed here.

These new shortcuts will help you get more done on the go with your kwiry service and a simple text message.

Facebook Connect

You can now link your Facebook account to kwiry:

• Invite your Facebook friends to become your friends on kwiry
• Use your Facebook ID and password to login to kwiry
• Keep your kwiry Profile updated with your Facebook photo and other info

Click here and link your account now.

While you’re at it, become our fan on Facebook!

Publish all your public kwirys to Twitter

Want to tell your Twitter followers about all the cool stuff you’re sending in to kwiry? Link your account here and click the “publish all my kwirys to Twitter” box.

Speaking of Twitter, follow kwirytalk on Twitter, where the kwiry community discusses kwiry features and we’re there to help with any issues/suggestions

Enhanced e-mails

You’ll probably notice right away that we’ve even further enhanced the e-mails you receive when you send in a kwiry. We now send you search results right in your e-mail!  You’ll see web results, Amazon results and now Yelp results (based on your zip code).

Weekly e-mail Digest

kwiry will now send you a weekly digest e-mail showing your kwirys from the past week and more. It’s a nice way to keep a pulse on all the stuff you wanted to remember.  Set your detailed notification preferences here.

Fitch released a report showing that the poor economic conditions in the US are giving rise to more people abandoning their landlines in favor of just using their mobile/wireless phone.  They report that 17% of US households are now fully wireless, which they predict will rise to 20% by year’s end. The move to VoIP through Cable companies and others has kept that number a bit lower, but it seems that when folks are looking to save money, their landline phone seems like a good thing to cut.

What do you think?  Dilbert seems to think it’s just old folks who are keeping landlines. Have you given up your landline at home? At work? If not, why do you keep a landline? Emergencies? Better long distance deals? More comfortable phone to hold for long periods? Unreliable/spotty cell phone service in your house (or in general)?

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Mobile Tuesday… Wait - Mobile Tuesday?

As reported by Advertising Age, mobile marketers worked on a promotion this past Tuesday to add Mobile Tuesday to the holiday schedule of special buying days. While the specific promotion may not have been as popular as the others, there’s no doubt that 2008 saw many more more efforts to get mobile involved in retail. How?

• Mobile Text Messaging updates - get updates on sales/deals, etc.
• Mobile Websites for Shopping, Info, deals and sometimes purchasing
• iPhone applications for entertainment and shopping
• Mobile barcode scanning for price comparison/purchase (Shopsavvy on Google’s Android Platform is most prominent recent example, see Sarah Perez’s series on ReadWriteWeb and kwiry’s take on 2D barcodes here)

Here are some examples of what different retailers have announced or launched recently regarding mobile:

Amazon

• Text message price comparison
• Text messaging purchasing
• Mobile web site
• iPhone application - See the detailed review at VentureBeat, this app includes option to upload a photo to be manually identified by Amazon’s Mechanical Turk later.

(via Mobile Marketer & VentureBeat)

Target

• iPhone App - The Target Gift Globe mimics the holiday tradition of the snow globe. After downloading it, users shake their iPhone, producing an on-screen snowfall that clears to reveal a gift idea from the retailer. Users can tap through to visit Target’s site and buy the item or find a store nearby.
• On a slightly ironic note, a Target store in Michigan recently achieved mobile infamy for telling a shopper that they couldn’t use a barcode price comparison application (shopsavvy) in the store.

(via Advertising Age)

Gap

• iPhone App - Gap Merry Mix, an application that lets users mix and match clothing. Uses the iPhone’s location technology to find a Gap store nearby. (unfortunately not as easy as it used to be, lots of retailers closing stores to deal with the economic times)

(via Advertising Age)

JC Penny

• Mobile alerts with shopping tips, gift ideas
• WAP site withstore-locator and weather
• Black Friday, Nov. 28 -  JCPenney stores opened at 4 a.m. and shoppers were able to sign up for a wake-up call to their mobile phone.

(via Mobile Marketer)

Sears

• Mobile Website where customers can purchase
• Text message alerts when item is ready for instore pickup
• Text message alerts for deals

(via Mobile Marketer)

In these tough economic times, it’s almost certain that retailers/advertisers/companies will be focusing on all ways to increase engagement with their potential customers in the hopes of selling more goods.  It will be interesting to follow which of these mobile retail efforts takes off and if it benefits all retailers or a select few.  In the meantime, don’t forget to use kwiry to help with your holiday shopping needs and to deal with the rough economy.

1. Products: Use kwiry to text in names of products you see or hear about while away from your computer.  Anytime you see or hear about a product you might want to buy, text it to kwiry and you can do a price comparison later online. We’ll automatically show you results from Amazon and do a comparison amongst various sites in the shopping tab.

2. Bargains: When a friend tells you about a good deal, bargain, coupon or you read about/see one, text it to kwiry so you don’t forget it. Whether its an online coupon code, a limited time offer or a cool new site that lets you by products on sale, use kwiry to remember it.

3. Budgets/expenses: Looking for a simple way to track your expenses so you can limit spending? Send a message to kwiry and you’ll have it stored in your e-mail.  you can add add an expenses folder at kwiry.com to keep them all in one place. If you want, you can use the Task shortcut to add these to your calendar so you can see exactly when/how you spent money.

4. Job leads/business information: Trying to improve your work situation or find a job? Text leads, companies, contact names, etc. to kwiry and have them saved for you online to follow-up on later. kwiry can also be a great business tool to make sure you out-perform at your current job also.  Some kwiry users keep track of their working or billable hours using kwiry, making sure to get full credit for all  of their hard work.

5.  Stocks/investments to buy/research: Let’s hope that the stock market plunge is close to bottoming out.  If that’s the case, there should be lots of buying opportunities.  Don’t forget which stocks you wanted to buy/sell/research, text them to kwiry and check them out later.

Any other ideas or suggestions? Write them in the comments!