Firefly Launches Publicly; Still Cute But Useless

NY-based Betaworks launched their Firefly product into public beta today. We initially reviewed Firefly when they presented at the NY Tech Meetup. I've embedded the demo video below so you can get familiar with the Firefly service.

Here's the idea. If you aren't happy with the commenting service that we offer, or aren't happy with any of the new crop of comment replacement services, Firefly can slap a layer on top of your page, and allow everyone to chat in real-time using cutsie bubbles without any idea who you are chatting with.

To be effective, everyone who is browsing the page also has to turn on the service. Luckily no plugin is required to use Firefly so they have that going for them. There's no login or registration required so the messages might start to get a bit "fun". Swearing is allowed by default it seems. Maybe Firefly could be successful if they partner with MySpace or Bebo.

It's really cute for about 2 minutes on a site that has good traffic. If you load it up and are alone, it's boring as heck. Either way, once the cutsie factor wears off, it's lights out. The maximum number of chatters in a Firefly window is 50 at a time. If you are #51, you get a ticket like at the deli counter. When your number is called, you enter the room to pick up your salami and cheese.

Initially SAI's Peter Kafka called it, "a feature not a service". Today Eric and Dan over at SAI seem to think it's cooler than Peter did -- I'm with Peter on this one. Update: Kafka seems to like the service more today than on the original review. He notes, "We could definitely use this w/some modifications...really great stuff. Look forward to using." Here's what Firefly looks like on a site running the service:

Update: Om Malik has also reviewed Firefly and notes that he likes the idea but doesn't see it as a business. He also says they may charge bloggers for using the service. I'd agree with Om as the information provided by Betaworks seems to indicate that the service is free only during the beta period.

Here is one of the quotes we received from the Betaworks team:

"Joshua Auerbach, firefly GM, said, "Firefly's 'wow' feature is the mouse-tracking. Being able to see other visitors' mouse cursors is just amazing – you have to see it to believe it."

Uhm, when I want to watch people's mouse cursors, I will do it in CrazyEgg or ClickTale. I can't tell if messages are logged so an admin can review them later and reply if necessary.

Betaworks has created several very useful products including Summize which was sold to Twitter and most recently Bit.ly which has moved the conversation about URL shorteners forward.