If you’re looking for a way to have private conversations, then a new startup called shoes and ships (no caps, yet another site with ‘creative’ spelling) may be exactly what you’re looking for.
shoes and ships is a new startup that’s one of the many making its debut at this week’s TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco. The Israeli startup, currently in “stealth mode,” aims to offer Internet users a way to have instant messaging conversations in private without having a permanent record on social networking sites, especially with Facebook’s privacy issues.
“This is the first time that Internet users around the world will be able to discuss (TechCrunch Disrupt) with others, in private, critiquing everything they see and hear, without having their thoughts blasted online in familiar social networks,” founder and CEO Neta Weinryb said in a press release.
Setting up a conversation is simple. You just click the “Start Conversing!” button on their site (I know, the site is a little rough. Things like these launch quickly and not all of the developers are professional Web designers.) and you’ll be prompted to enter your username on a number of popular instant messaging services. The only person that entered the conversation, however, was another Walyou writer. Oh well, you have to start somewhere, right? Then you’ll have a new messenger contact, which as of this writing is called “tcd.converse,” which stands for TechCrunch Disrupt.
Then users will be able to discuss the conference without having your boss or business contacts hear you bad-mouth the stupid startup ideas you’re seeing at the conference. One problem with the site is that your username is still visible in the chats, so other people might still be able to recognize you if you pick one that others are familiar with.
Still, The idea still seems interesting, if you can get past the Comic Sans. It still remains to be seen if shoes and ships can compete with completely anonymous chat services like Omegle, but it might be interesting to watch what they do when they get out of stealth mode.
