Adding Nuance to Online Communication

What’s the Latest Development?

Entrepreneur Chris Andrews has been looking for a way to add more nuance to Internet communication. He found keystrokes, emoticons and abbreviations like LOL wanting. “That question led to his newest venture, SoundLink, an application that allows anyone to take a URL and lay their voice over it. Users record themselves speaking about a web page—or something on that page—and then combine the URL with that recording to create a single link: a soundlink. With one click, you can see the page your friend recommended (or hated) and hear their reasons for sending it or their comments and opinions about it.”

What’s the Big Idea?

“Up until now, sound on the Internet has been associated with things like Skype or Google Voice,” says Andrews. “Sound as content is a very new idea.” So will his idea revolutionize Internet communication, or at least add some much-needed nuance to the online experience? “The product is still in beta, but Andrews anticipates it will be ready to roll before the end of the year. ‘The way text is used on the web now it’s quick and superficial. But if you attach a voice to it, you get things like irony, humor and nuance,’ he says. ‘And that’s real communication.'”