I’ve never heard of TeleFlip until about a week ago when someone sent me an email telling me to check them out. I’m going to give them a try with my Mobile Marketing Watch email.

What’s cool about TeleFlip is that it’s actually better than real email because it utilizes a trust network. So if you’re not in my trust network then you can’t spam me because I control who goes into the trusted list. Users upload their contact lists and those lists effectively become your white list. Officer trusty isn’t going to let an email get sent to the SMS gateway if it’s not in your white list otherwise he’s gonna get fired.

In the last couple of days there has been a tremendous amount of blog chatter regarding trusted networks. One A List Blogger even predicted that these types of trusted fabrics are better and that over time users will move away from applications like Google as an example and gravitate towards applications that rely on trust. I think he’s on to something even though he’s getting skewered.

Now, speaking of trust. You’ll need to trust TeleFlip because one of the first things they ask for in the sign-up process is your email account credentials. I definitely see some people bailing on this service at this point. To be perfectly honest, I hesitated too and so I’m not going to test this service with my GMail Account but I am going to try it out using one of my Mobile Marketing Watch email accounts.

Here’s something that it’s missing and I think it’s critical but I’ve been told by someone very close to the Company that they’re working on it. TeleFlip right now does not offer integration with things like LinkedIn or GMail to load contacts. I think this is going to be mandatory to get adoption. Who wants to spend time typing this stuff in repeatedly?

I’m still going to give TeleFlip a whirl though.

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I know, it sounds crazy but while some companies are all going Web 2.0 and Social Networking the greater landscape is changing in the U.S. Remember when the Yellow Pages was the place to search for stuff? Then Google after many others came along, and now we all Google right? Guess what we don’t do? We don’t all Google from our mobile doohickeys as often as we do with our web browsers, some of us do but many don’t.

Deals such as this one with a behemoth like Verizon makes you wonder where Google is going with Mobile. Back in the late 90’s the Yellow Pages didn’t stand a chance to compete with search engines because they didn’t see the train coming. Things are different now, you’ve got to take notice when Verizon partners with a mobile search firm that has secured 28M in funding. Why? Because the providers have lock-in on the devices and so they have some say over things like the applications that run on these devices (think default search engine for our network of millions of users).

Google, unlike the Yellow Pages certainly can see this train coming or they wouldn’t be so interested in the 698 to 806 MHz band. They need it open or they might have a difficult time as long as the masses are locked-in. If you’re a telecom you don’t want Google in the space and if your Google you need to find a way in because mobile is going to grow. It’s sorta equivalent to the last mile in the networking world, except with mobile the curb moves.

Google has a 160B market cap and they’ll put fear into many a company but the telecoms know this game, it’s their turf and someone like Verizon with a 130M market cap of their own can lob one across the bow of a Google.

Here’s where a partnership can make for an interesting future for companies that are trying like heck to compete with each other right now. Suppose Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, IBM and perhaps Apple formed an open alliance and took the telecoms on for the 698 to 806 MHz band? That’s a formidable group that could put up a tremendous challenge for this space and in the end we consumers might benefit greatly from something such as this if the alliance vowed to make it open for consumers, companies and developers alike.

That’s my crazy weekend pie in the sky idea, what’s yours?

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At 5:30PM EST when I left my office the bids for this cracked iPhone was somewhere in the 8K range and moving up nicely. Fast forward 3 hours and the bid is at 99M.

So, I’m wondering if there’s been any independent substantiation of this claim or is this the best link bait of the year?

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Enjoy. I wonder how long it will be before the Apple and AT&T lawyers go bonkers.

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This is an off-topic alert…

I do and I enjoy getting that magazine as I do any magazine that has some return value in the form of new knowledge for my bucket; provided I have time to read it and perhaps that’s where the problem lies for Business 2.0 and print in general. I just received my September issue today and although it’s a bit leaner it doesn’t have the look of a magazine that is terminating next Month but that’s exactly what’s being reported on Valleywag and Folio.

I’ve noticed that I have less and less time for reading print. This includes magazines and newspapers. 5 years ago I read 2 newspapers daily, now I’m lucky to get through the USA Today. Why? There’s too much information for me to sift through on-line which leaves me with little off-line time to read. If I’m going to read the paper then it’s going to be during lunch or it’s not going to happen.

Anyhow, I’d be bummed to see this one go because I still like getting a decent magazine or two. I can understand it though, I’ll bet it’s hard to sell the advertising with sites like TechCrunch pulling in 6ooK daily readers and rising. Why not just take an ad on TechCrunch if you’re one of the Fortune 500’s that’s currently buying full page ads in Business 2.0? I’ll bet the rates are better and it’s more than likely the audience you’d be after right? Oh and guess what else you get on-line? It’s much easier to measure performance and that’s really important.

I sent the editors an email asking if the rumors are true and they’ve not responded.

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This crossed the wire a couple of hours ago. Yahoo has acquired Actionality which has one of those bizarre web sites without links on it. I’m not kidding either, this is like a 3 page web site. Go figure?

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I’m on my lunch break so I’ll make this quick.

Yesterday, it was mobileStorm today it’s Mobile Glu. Have you ever heard of them? According to Forbes, they’re the 3rd largest Game maker for mobile phones in the U.S. They have some fantastic licenses in place for such classics as Monopoly, Life, Clue, Asteroids and the quintessential Battleship!

Their stock is rising today after an analyst upgrade. Forbes covered it here.

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