Zedge Mobile Reviewed

 Zedge Mobile Hompage Image I want to follow up on yesterday’s piece about IDT’s aquisition of Zedge.net, a mobile social software (MoSoSo) site that slipped under my radar to become a market leader.

Initially, I was surprised at how little there is to Zedge’s mobile (wml) site wap.zedge.net. All you can do there is download the files that you have added to your account from the PC site. There is no messaging, chat or ability to view another user’s profile or any social features at all on the mobile web site, although all those, except chat, are available on the PC site. With 3.5 million users and 400,000 shared mobile files Zedge obviously is popular. As I explored Zedge’s PC site, I think I found a couple of keys to Zedge’s success; trust and a focus on handset customization.

  • Trust is fostered by Zedge not using SMS to deliver content, there’s not even a place for a phone number in the user profile. This is reassuring to users who have been burned by or heard about “Free Ringtone” services that turned out to be premium SMS scams.
  • By handset customization I don’t mean hardware mods or firmware hacking, instead Zedge offers users ways to personalize their phones with easy to install content that won’t break the warranty like ringtones, wallpapers, themes and screensavers. To that end, there are menu driven online logo, wallpaper and screensaver creators. There’s a large, active forum with the busiest topics being phone specific help forums and theme making and handset unlocking. In terms of downloadable content, there are ringtones, images, themes, wallpapers and videos with the focus on themes. Zedge hosts over 40,000 downloadable themes created by users for most of the models of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Siemens and Windows Mobile phones that support themes. Many users use the forums to request a specific theme based on a photograph or web link.

Unlike most phone file sharing sites, Zedge doesn’t offer sharing or download of mobile games and apps. I suspect that’s because Zedge doesn’t want to be seen as a “Warez” site. There are intellectual property issues around ringtones, too – but tones are more of a Grey area. Is a user created midi of a pop tune a copyright violation, if it was composed from memory without starting with a digital file or score? What about supporting fair use for users who already own the CD? On the other hand, having your site be a repository for the sharing of cracked games is just asking for trouble.

It’s easy to see the appeal of Zedge. The content creation tools are quick, simple wizards that let even the most artistically challenged user create something that looks good. The moderated forums are mostly flame free and have a pretty good signal to noise ratio compared to most forum sites. Even the minimalist mobile site makes sense especially for users on metered data plans. There is no data or time wasted searching, going through lengthy menus, etc, it’s just connect, download, disconnect. I think IDT has picked up a winner, let’s see what they do with it.

A link to the Zedge mobile web site can be found on YesWAP.com in the Technology/Mobile/Downloads section.

Zedge.net: wml
Content: **** Usability: ****

17 thoughts on “Zedge Mobile Reviewed

  1. Can anybody tel meh hw cn i valid my new email. From mobile.I tried many.time..bt it respns again.n again samethng.. I alrdy.creatd.email.bt.whn i entr to.chat.it..shows .valid mail… Y its so dificult.to cmplt one id…

  2. I’m not sure how you could have not registered but they somehow charge you, but you can go here http://www.zedge.net/contact/ and you can send them an email and they will reply to you within 2 business days. Try to include as much information as possible like what the emails say and the date you first started to receive these messages. Otherwise if you find out that you did in fact sign up for such a service you could always then ask them to cancel your subscription which they will have to then do.

  3. I never register for this zedge.net,but its keep sms and and charged my prepaid. How to stop it… please help me

  4. Zedge has crashed my desktop and laptop. You upload what you want ! come on people think about it ! the site is targeted by every hacker on the planet ! (aleedsfella37). DO NOT USE ZEDGE if you value you pc.

  5. Zedge has made a new beta mobile site @ mobile.zedge.net – it looks good and has nice features for the community members.

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