Hooopy: Real-time news to your desktop

Fans of high tech may start going Hooopy. Hooopy? A Korean venture company has developed an English language service that enables people to choose Web sites, blogs, or other media content and receive that content on their desk top computer in real-time. Shotech Co., an online marketing solutions company based in southern Seoul, said yesterday that it launched an English-language version of Hooopy, a service that incorporates a new way of sharing user created content. The service is the first of its kind available in English and is free (hooopy.com). The concept of Hooopy is a fusion of designating favorite Web sites and receiving feeds. After a user selects Web sites and blogs, updated contents on those sites, such as photos, movie clips, and music, are automatically delivered to a Hooopy box. The Hooopy box pops up on the computer screen whenever there is an update, but it can be minimized so that it stays on the computer desktop display. Users can view updated content on their favorite Web sites without having to visit each site. Content that the user receives is compiled on the user’s own Hooopy site, which is equipped with functions normally available in blogs. “The quality of online-user created content culture is changing at a rapid pace, and this service enables Internet users to share their contents in an effective manner,” said Yoo Seok-ho, chief executive of Shotech. “Blogs and community groups are no longer private spaces for contemplation, but are increasingly being used as tools for marketing.” In Korea, the company offers the service to companies that use it to deliver real-time news directly to the desk top. by Wohn Dong-hee