Yes, you read correctly. I don’t get it. I have a profile, I’ve told you guys about it, and I’ve tried to use it. However, I just don’t get MOSH. I was even more confused a while back when Nokia announced that they were adding “SEEK” to MOSH. SEEK allows lazy MOSHers to make a request for content, and cross their fingers that the community will respond and post it. I can’t for the life of me figure this one out.

MOSH has been around for a while, and even has a mobile client that just got updated recently over at Nokia Beta Labs. They have a mobile version of their site so that you can use it on any phone (not just Nokias), but I want to cover a few things about MOSH that I just don’t get.

On a side note, I think alot of bloggers feel the same way. Darla Mack recently posted her concerns about MOSH, and she’s in the top 10 contributors. What’s funny, though, as another blogger said to me when I asked them for their thoughts on MOSH, is that Nokia posted a position as Russell, the mascot, so to speak, of MOSH. Probably every blogger out there applied to the position (myself included) and thus no one really wanted to speak out. That’s probably how come you didn’t know about SEEK……

The first thing I don’t get about MOSH is this so-called Mobile Client. It isn’t a client at all. It’s a simple shell for weblinks. I’m serious, download it yourself. All it does when you click on something is open a web browser to that page. There’s absolutely no difference in having the app running and using up your RAM and just using a folder full of links in your browser. You gain nothing. So why bother? The only reasoning behind this is increased adoption. You’re much more likely to use an app than add a bunch of weblinks. This seems a bit misleading, and suspicious that they essentially are tricking you into using MOSH.

The other thing that I don’t get about MOSH is that there’s little to no organization. There’s no process for finding out if something is already uploaded, save for doing a search first. If I have an application to upload, I’m not likely to do a search first. That’s an extra step, and if I’m uploading from my phone, then I’m going to want to save as many steps as possible. So a search for Snakes, for instance, brings up 3 different versions. How do I know which is the one I want, or if all three are the right file? I have to guess, which isn’t all that great of a thing for me.

There’s also apparently no way for Nokia to verify that you own the rights to a file. This sucks in the instance of audio, and has actually hurt Nokia. Warner Music pulled their library from Nokia’s recently launched Nokia Music Store in the UK citing concerns of copyrighted material being hosted on Nokia’s MOSH. Nokia states that they will quickly pull offending material, but only after the owner requests the specific file.

There’s also things that don’t really make sense in terms of my profile. I have my dashboard, where I can pick a photo and add my url and all that. I can also get a snapshot of who’s watching me by commenting, collecting, loving, or tagging my stuff. I can also add things to my collections, which are also known as my “MOSHbox.” I think I can create other collections, if I wanted, also, though I don’t see the benefit.

And next we have this SEEK thing. SEEK, according to the press release, isn’t even available till December. So then why tell us about it now? It’s not a phone that we need to start saving for. It’s a feature on a website. So SEEK lets you make a request to the MOSH community, and hope that someone’s bored enough to go search it out for you and upload it. As far as I can tell, there’s no real motivation to answer the requests, other than just plain being nice. Hmmm.

So there’s my complaints: crappy pseudo-mobile client, lack of organization, confusing feature descriptions, and a P2P lazyweb. However, criticism isn’t really useful unless it contains suggestions, so next up are things that I would do with MOSH to make it actually useful.

First things first, lets get a real mobile client. I’m not asking for an S60 native client, as that would obviously limit the users of MOSH. How about a java one? With an upload feature, so I can upload stuff straight from the app. Speaking of, why isn’t there a one-click upload option in the newer S60 handsets? And videos, etc.

Another thing about this uploading is apps/games. If I’m using an S60 device, how on earth am I supposed to upload an app/game to MOSH from the device? I’d have to have the .sis file, which, if the app/game is currently installed, I don’t readily have. So now I have to wait till I get to my computer. Not good. Fix this somehow.

I’d also implement a mechanism to reduce the amount of duplicates. How exactly you go about this is MOSH’s job, not mine. There just needs to be a better way to keep track of things other than just letting everyone install whatever they want.

Why not use MOSH to distribute new apps such as those found in the Nokia Beta Labs, or otherwise tie it into Nokia? It just seems a bit….silly to me. What do you think? Have you used MOSH? WOULD you use MOSH? What for? What do you think about SEEK? Would you be motivated to do the searching for someone else? What could Nokia add to SEEK to increase the motivation?

Categories: Personal Rants
Tags: mosh, nokia, seek, user-generated content