DEMO: Kutano overlays web sites with comment app

March 3, 2009 | Dean Takahashi | Comments | |

Kutano is yet another company that’s creating an application for the parallel web, which refers to applications that layer a new set of functions on top of the existing web.

The app, presented at DEMO 2009 this week, sits on top of any web site and generates a panel on the side of a web page where users can leave comments.

Anyone else who uses Kutano can visit that page in the future and see your comments. They can thus interact with you. If you leave a comment on, say, a book web site, Kutano sends you an email or a Twitter message notifying you when someone responds to your comment.

Since you’re leaving the comment on Kutano’s software, you’re not actually changing the web site in any way. That means the company that owns the web site can’t take the comment down. Sure, this will result in a lot of spam and inappropriate comments. But Kutano will rely on its users to flag such stuff, and the company will ban abusive users. You can effectively mute people (so you don’t see their comments) you don’t want to hear from. Once you log into Kutano, you can pretty much use it on any web site.

Over time, the company wants to enable connectivity so that a Twitter user can leave a Kutano message on a site, directly from Twitter.

“The intent is to democratize content on the web,” said Tina Gonsalves, vice president of marketing at Kutano.

Kutano is based in Burnaby, Canada. It has raised two rounds of funding from one angel investor and has funding from the Canadian government’s program for high-tech investment. Competitors include Reframe It and WebSpeakup. Another parallel web company is Rocketon, which creates avatars, or virtual characters who can crawl over other web sites and hold live chats with others visiting the sites.


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About the Author, Dean Takahashi

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • Wow...this has major implications. Will the entire web be nonweb like new media has significantly strayed from old media?
  • Bill Gurley
    Wasn't there a DFJ startup in the late 90s that did this? I believe this idea is 10 years old. Doesn't mean it won't work now, just surprised by the comment "wow this has major implications."
  • John Le
    Mint is a prime example of a web 2.o revamp of an older less successful model during the dotcom days (although yodlee is still around). How did the DFJ company try to monetize its business? Perhaps lessons learned for Kutano.
  • I think that startup was Third Voice and it was pre/early-social. The idea of commenting on other's content was still early -- in fact, I remember various concerns about people criticizing sites/content. A key complaint involved webmaster inability to moderate comments as most publishing/comment systems allow today. From this writeup Kutano appears to be following a similar path -- prioritizing user control over webmaster control.

    I don't know if Kutano has it figured out (particularly revenue model), but the sharing and commenting mindset is very different today than it was when Third Voice launched. I'm just not sure a single-purpose app will unlock this potential -- rather than a social network extension (e.g. Facebook web-wide comments).
  • jhon123
    Mint is a prime splendor of a lattice 2.o purify of an older less best-selling diagram during the dotcom days (although yodlee is halcyon around). How did the DFJ company shot to monetize its business? Perhaps lessons experienced over Kutano. Gary Winnick------ Hank Freid